Research Interests

Your immune system protects you from viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens, and I am interested in how the cells of the immune system develop.  In particular, I am interested in how T cells develop.  T cells control the behavior of many other cells in the immune system, and they also kill cells that are infected with viruses.  T cells learn to recognize and destroy viruses and other pathogens, but T cells do not generally recognize and destroy normal tissues.  Sometimes, however, this process goes awry, and T cells do destroy normal tissues - causing autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and juvenile diabetes.  One of the ways this process can go wrong is in the early life of a T cell when it is still maturing.  Therefore, I study the cellular biology and biochemistry that is involved in T cell maturation in both mouse and Zebrafish models.  By understanding how these processes work, I hope to better understand how autoimmune disease occurs.

Students Supervised:

• 2003 – Jennifer Dvorak, Peter Scott, Elizabeth Palmquist
• 2004 – Jennifer Dvorak, Gregory Cherryholmes, Kristin Evenson
• 2005 – Kristin Evenson, Justine Lopez, Laura Keys
• 2006 – Justine Lopez, Laura Keys, Kevin Ranum, Nadia Tarazi
• 2007 – Kimberly Lew, Kevin Ranum, Rebekah Schneider, Nadia Tarazi

Honor’s Projects:

• 2003 – Peter Scott, “FOXO3 as a Signal for Thymocyte Apoptosis”
• 2004 – Gregory Cherryholmes, “The Effects of 4-Hydroxytamoxifin on the Growth of Thymocyte Cell Lines Transfected with Inducible FOXO3”
• 2005 – Kristin Evenson, "The Research and Development of a Major National Science Foundation Instrumentation Grant"

Grants:

• NSF,  $213,740, 8/1/2006 - 7/31/2008, Major Instrumentation for Undergraduate Research and Teaching at PLNU
• NCLB, $58,000, 2/1/2008 - 7/31/2009, SEASAND CA Subject Matter Project in Science