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2014 Lectures
DEC
2
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Lecture: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, Second Floor, Wertz Auditorium
4100 John R. Street, Detroit, MI 48201
Oxidized Glycerophosphocholines for Fun and Profit in Cancer and Immunity
Kampen-Norins Professor and Chair of Dermatology
Indiana University School of Medicine
Host: Qing-Sheng Mi, M.D., Ph.D.
Departments of Medicine and Dermatology, Henry Ford Health Systems
  • IconSpeaker Profile
      Dr. Travers is a physician scientist who studies the pharmacology of bioactive oxidized lipids and the role of fibroblast senescence in non-melanoma skin cancer. He is an expert in atopic dermatitis and currently conducts specialized clinics focusing on the care of the most challenging pediatric and adult patients. Dr. Travers has published approximately 200 peer-reviewed research papers. His total funding from the NIH has been more than $7.5 million, and he has received more than $1.3 million from the Department of Veterans Affairs for his research. He is currently the principal investigator on three NIH grants. In his more than nine years as the Chair of Dermatology at Indiana University, he consistently received the highest scores for faculty satisfaction and mentorship. He holds a Basic Science VA Merit Award and a Clinical VA Merit Award to do research in the initiation of skin cancer. He has regularly participated as a grant reviewer for several different federal research programs and has trained a total of 20 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. Dr. Travers is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and American Dermatological Association honorary societies and currently serves on the Scientific Committee for the American Academy of Dermatology and the Finance Committee for the Society for Investigative Dermatology.
Jeffrey B. Travers
NOV
4
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Lecture: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, Second Floor, Wertz Auditorium
4100 John R. Street, Detroit, MI 48201
Genetic Analysis of iNKT Cell Development
Associate Member
Immunobiology and Cancer Research Program
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF)
Host: Qing-Sheng Mi, M.D., Ph.D.
Departments of Medicine and Dermatology, Henry Ford Health Systems

  • IconSpeaker Profile
      Dr. Alberola-Ila is a renowned immunologist specializing in the differentiation of T cells and nature killer T cells. He is currently an Associate Member of the Immunobiology and Cancer Research program at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and has held previous faculty appointments at the California Institute of Technology. His group identified the critical function of the tyrosine kinase Lck and the transcription factor GATA-3 in the specification of CD4 vs. CD8 T cell lineage, and the role of the transcription factor c-Myb in the selection of invariant NKT cell lineage. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including being a Pew Scholar and a Cancer Research Institute Special Fellow. The current focus of his laboratory is to understand how GATA-3 controls the CD4 T cell lineage decision and the regulation of the specification of the NKT cell lineage.
José Alberola-Ila
OCT
7
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Lecture: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, Second Floor, Wertz Auditorium
4100 John R. Street, Detroit, MI 48201
Molecular Signatures Differentiate Immune States in Type 1 Diabetes Families
Professor and Director
Max McGee National Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes
Medical College of Wisconsin
Host: Qing-Sheng Mi, M.D., Ph.D.
Departments of Medicine and Dermatology, Henry Ford Health Systems
Martin J. Hessner
SEP
2
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Lecture: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, Second Floor, Wertz Auditorium
4100 John R. Street, Detroit, MI 48201
The Gut Microbiome Influences Progression of Ovarian Cancer in Mice
via Th17 and T-Regulatory Cells
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Host: Wei-Zen Wei, Ph.D.
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
Department of Oncology, Wayne State University

Andrea Facciabene
AUG
5
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Lecture: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, Second Floor, Wertz Auditorium
4100 John R. Street, Detroit, MI 48201
Environmental Exposure and Systemic Autoimmunity
Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine
Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine
The Scripps Research Institute
Host: Allen Rosenspire., Ph.D.
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
  • IconSpeaker Profile
      Dr. Pollard PhD gained his doctorate from the University of Sydney, Australia and did postdoctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute and in Australia before joining the Scripps faculty in 1992. His research seeks to understand mechanisms of systemic autoimmunity, and the role that environmental agents play in the initiation and/or exacerbation of autoimmune disease. The current focus of research in his laboratory includes three areas of investigation: 1) Role of innate and adaptive immune responses in environmental autoimmunity, 2) Environmental exposure and acceleration of idiopathic systemic autoimmunity, and 3) Identification of genes that confer resistance or susceptibility to environmental autoimmunity.
Kenneth Michael Pollard
JUL
8
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Lecture: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, Second Floor, Wertz Auditorium
4100 John R. Street, Detroit, MI 48201
Molecular Markers of Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma:
Translating Science into Clinical Practice
Professor
Department of Dermatology and Skin Science
University of British Columbia
Director
Chieng Genomics Center and Laboratory of Predictive Medicine and Therapeutics
Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
Canada
Host: Li Zhou, M.D.
Departments of Medicine and Dermatology, Henry Ford Health Systems
Youwen Zhou
JUN
3
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Lecture: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, Second Floor, Wertz Auditorium
4100 John R. Street, Detroit, MI 48201
Transcriptional Control of Innate T Cells
Harold L. Paz M.D. Endowed Professor
Chief, Developmental Biology
Department of Pediatrics
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Rutgers University
Host: Qing-Sheng Mi, M.D., Ph.D.
Departments of Medicine and Dermatology, Henry Ford Health Systems
Derek Sant'Angelo
MAY
9
This event will be held on a Friday in the Department of Chemistry building.
Lecture: 4:00 pm
A. Paul Schaap Auditorium, Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University
5101 Cass Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202
Transcription Brings Activation-Induced Cytidine Deaminase (AID) to
Immunoglobulin Variable and Switch Regions
Senior Investigator
Section on Antibody Diversity
Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Immunology
National Institute of Aging
National Institutes of Health
Host: Ashok Bhagwat, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University
  • IconSpeaker Profile
      Dr. Patricia Gearhart is a leading expert in the studies of antibody gene diversification and the molecular mechanisms of DNA mutations. She received her Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974, and performed her postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University. She was a staff associate at the Carnegie Institution of Washington until 1982 and became a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University until 1995, when she moved to the NIA. Somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin genes occurs at a frequency that is a million times greater than mutations in other genes. Improper regulation of this process leads to humoral immunodeficiency as well as the development of cancer. Her group has used biochemical and genetic techniques to elucidate this fascinating process mediated by the enzyme activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) that occurs constantly in every B lymphocyte in the human body.
Patricia Gearhart
APR
1
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Lecture: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, Second Floor, Wertz Auditorium
4100 John R. Street, Detroit, MI 48201
Exploiting Autophagy to Improve the Immunotherapy of Cancer
Endowed Chair and Chief, Laboratory of Molecular and Tumor Immunology
Earle A. Chiles Research Institute
Providence Portland Medical Center, Oregon
Leader, Tumor Immunology Focus Group
Knight Cancer Institute
Oregon Health and Science University
Past President, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer
Host: Wei-Zen Wei, Ph.D.
Department of Oncology, Wayne State University and
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
Lunch with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and residents: 1:30 - 2:30 pm
  • IconSpeaker Profile
      The current focus of Dr. Fox's research aims at understanding tumor-induced suppressive mechanisms that blunt the efficacy of immunotherapy and developing approaches to overcome these mechanisms. In preclinical models this involves the appreciation of the important role tumor-induced T reg cells play and development of strategies to overcome this effect. One approaches developed in his lab is depletion of CD25+ cells from cells used to “reconstitute” a lympho-depleted host. This strategy is now being translated into clinical trials for patients with melanoma or prostate cancer. A second strategy is to employ anti-CD4 antibody to partially deplete CD4 T cells. In preclinical models this depletion “tips-the-balance” and uncovers therapeutic efficacy in a multiple vaccination model. This strategy is also heading to a phase I clinical trial. Other studies are using T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic (Tg) mice with specificity for tumor-specific/associated antigens to dissect the mechanisms of tumor regression and tumor escape. His lab also uses a wide variety of knockout (KO) and Tg mice to study requirements for tumor elimination in vivo, maintenance of long-term antitumor immunity and approaches to augment effector function. Other studies in his lab have unexpectedly identified that patients receiving lympho-depleting chemotherapy prior to adoptive transfer of peripheral blood mononuclear cells and vaccination have an increased frequency of CD3+/CD4+/CD25+/FoxP3+ "Regulatory" T cells (3-5 fold) within the first 2 weeks of vaccination. These elevated levels of regulatory T cells and can stay elevated for several weeks. Current efforts are directed at understanding this observation and characterizing the cellular and humoral anti-tumor immune response. By apheresing patients prior to and following vaccination we have substantial numbers of T cells, monocytes and DCs for performing sophisticated monitoring and the development of cellular reagents. In collaboration with biotech collaborators, his group is using SEREX to evaluate the development of humoral anti-tumor immunity.
Bernard Fox
MAR
4
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Lecture: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Hudson Webber Cancer Research Center, Second Floor, Wertz Auditorium
4100 John R. Street, Detroit, MI 48201
Modulating Innate Immune Responses in the Genital Mucosa
to Facilitate Transport and Biodistribution of Nanoparticle Vaccines
Assistant Professor
Department of Bioengineering
University of Washington
Host: Joshua Reineke, Ph.D.
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wayne State University
  • IconSpeaker Profile
      Kim A. Woodrow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington since January 2010. From 2006 to 2009, she was a postdoctoral fellow in Biomedical Engineering at Yale University in the group of Prof. W. Mark Saltzman. She completed her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Stanford in 2006. Dr. Woodrow’s research interests focus on the application of engineered biomaterials in mucosal biology, where her lab works on the design and synthesis of biomaterials for applications in mucosal infections and mucosal immunity. She is an NIH-funded investigator, the recipient of the Creative and Novel Ideas in HIV Research (CNIHR) award from the Office of AIDS Research, a recipient of a grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and was awarded a 2012 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.
Kim Woodrow