Irvington Institute Fellowship Program of the Cancer Research Institute
Fiscal Year 2009 (July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009)
Asterisks indicate new awards made in fiscal year 2009
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
Vladimir Vigdorovich, Ph.D.*
Structure of T-cell activation modulatory signal molecules B7-H3 and B7-H4
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Shuo Zhang, Ph.D.
Nuclear receptors Nor-1- and Nur77-deficient mice as novel model of acute myeloid leukemia
Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA
Hiroaki Ito, Ph.D.*
Regulation of dendritic cell responses by ITAM-containing signaling adapters
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA
Javier Gordon Ogembo, Ph.D.*
Characterization of the littoral cell of human spleen and identification of its function(s) in health and disease(s)
Monika Vig, Ph.D.
Calcium-signaling pathways in immune cells
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
Kittichoat Tiyanont, Ph.D.*
Inhibitors of notch signaling
Burnham Institute for Medical Research, La Jolla, CA
Ana V. Miletic Sedy, Ph.D.
Coordinate suppression of B-cell lymphoma by PTEN and SHIP
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
Jesse D. Bloom, Ph.D.
Biophysical underpinnings of virus evolvability
Ryan M. O’Connell, Ph.D.
Investigating the role of microRNA-155 in immune responses against viral infections
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Sarah L. Veatch, Ph.D.
Mechanisms of LL-37 membrane permeation
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Etienne Gagnon, Ph.D.
Regulation of T-cell activation through dynamic membrane binding of the
TCR-CD3 ITAMs
David A. Schubert, Ph.D.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Fellow
The mechanism of T-cell receptor triggering and its implications for immunotherapy
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Manabu Kurokawa, Ph.D.
Apoptosome inhibition by leukemic tyrosine kinases: Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic strategies
Ryan D. Michalek, Ph.D.*
Regulation of estrogen-related receptor a in activated CD4+ T cells as a metabolic model for cancer progression
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Anna D. Tischler, Ph.D.
Persistence mechanisms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Metabolic analysis and identification of counterimmune factors
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
Rupesh H. Amin, Ph.D.*
Monoallelic expression of mouse Tlr4 as a model for transcriptional memory
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Jason L. Gaglia, M.D.
Irvington Institute/Dana Foundation Fellow
Imaging studies in type I diabetes
Silke Paust, Ph.D.
Identification of NK cell receptors and signaling pathways involved in the generation of NK cell-mediated contact hypersensitivity responses and immunological memory
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Hon-Ren Huang, Ph.D.
Functional studies of regulatory molecules in the Toll signaling pathway
Catherine E. Leimkuhler Grimes, Ph.D.
Chemical and biochemical analysis of Nod2 activation
Immune Disease Institute, Inc., Boston, MA
Micah J. Benson, Ph.D.*
Discovery of factors regulating immunoglobulin mRNA alternative splicing
Martin R. Mueller, M.D., Ph.D.
Role of the transcription factor NFAT in tumorigenesis
Ryan T. Phan, Ph.D.
Role of XRCC4 non-homologous end-joining gene in genomic stability in germinal-center B cells and B-cell lymphomas
Jane Seagal, Ph.D.
Requirements for memory B-cell survival
Mark S. Sundrud, Ph.D.
Structure-function characterization of the FoxP3-NFAT interaction and its importance in Treg development
Yu Zhang, Ph.D.
Spatiotemporal and functional relationships between checkpoint, DNA repair, and RAG proteins during V(D)J recombination
Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA
Shari Marie Kaiser, Ph.D.
A proteomics approach to identify and characterize determinants of pathogenicity in highly pathogenic influenza
Vladimir Litvak, Ph.D.
Mechanism underlying differential signaling of TLR2/1 and TLR2/6
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
André Catic, M.D., Ph.D.
Margaret Dammann Eisner Fellow
Proteome regulation in hematopoietic stem cells
Read Pukkila-Worley, M.D.*
A C. elegans and C. neoformans model of the host-pathogen interaction
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Kirk D. C. Jensen, Ph.D.*
Determining the role of toxoplasma gene products that modulate mucosal inflammation
Matthew James Youngman, Ph.D.
Genetic dissection of innate immunity during aging in C. elegans
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Ashutosh Chaudhry, Ph.D.*
Role of Stat3 in maintaining immune homeostasis
Cenk Sumen, Ph.D.
Visualizing the T-cell response to tumors in vivo
Carles Ubeda Morant, Ph.D.*
Innate immune effect on intestinal microbial diversity
Arun Unni, Ph.D.
Defining the role cell stage plays in susceptibility to oncogenic transformation within the B-cell lineage
National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, CO
Matthew Alan Burchill, Ph.D.*
Eugene V. Weissman Memorial Fellow
Access to tumor necrosis family ligands controls T-cell clonal dominance
New York University Medical Center, New York, NY
Kaushik Choudhuri, D.Phil.
The cell biology and molecular biophysics of the immunological synapse
Rebecca Anna Johnson, Ph.D.*
Isolated recombination signals as novel mediators of genomic instability
Sang-Won Kim, Ph.D.
Role of ROR-g-t during Th17 cell differentiation, infection, and autoimmune diseases
Eric C. Logue, Ph.D.
Determining the mechanisms of HIV-1 nuclear import in non-dividing cells of the immune system
Nicolas Manel, Ph.D.
Factors that control Th17 cell differentiation in humans and the role of Th17 cells in HIV infection
Ngozi Rosalin Monu, Ph.D.*
Mechanisms of antigen presentation by dendritic cells
Yuliya Pylayeva-Gupta, Ph.D.*
Role of KRas activation in modulating the immune response during pancreatic cancer development
MacLean C. Sellars, Ph.D.*
Defining the transcription factor networks that control Th17 specification
Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
Erbay Yigit, Ph.D.
Effect of nucleosome positioning on regulation of gene expression
Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR
Isabel G. Scholz, Ph.D.
Analysis of a novel rhesus cytomegalovirus immune evasion mechanism
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Juilee Thakar, Ph.D.
Inferring, analyzing, and modeling system-level immune responses
The Rockefeller University, New York, NY
Robert M. Anthony, Ph.D.
Fc glycosylation in IVIG-mediated immunosuppression
Terry C. Fang, Ph.D.
The role of histone methyltransferase G9a in controlling the immune system
Jan Lunemann, M.D.
Irvington Institute/Dana Foundation Fellow
The role of Epstein-Barr virus in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis
Rushad Pavri, Ph.D.
The role of AID in B-cell transformations
Alexander J. Ruthenburg, Ph.D.
The mechanism of Hox gene regulation by the MLL (mixed lineage leukemia) complex: The search for factors that modulate activity and recruitment
Jacob S. Yount, Ph.D.
Cell-specific uncaging of small molecules to dissect immune responses in vivo
The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA
Carrie N. Arnold, Ph.D.
Forward genetic analysis of mammalian resistance and susceptibility to viral infection
Amanda L. Blasius, Ph.D.
Genetic analysis of the type I interferon response to TLR9
Jean-Pierre Clamme, Ph.D.
Intermolecular rearrangements of TCR during antigen recognition: A two-photon and FRET microscopy study in living cells
Urtzi Garaigorta, Ph.D.
Regulation of hepatitis C virus infection by interferon-inducible micro-RNAs
Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA
Blythe Duke Sather, Ph.D.
Role for PKC-b overexpression in development of B-cell lymphomas
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
Dongkyoon Kim, Ph.D.
Irvington Institute/Dana Foundation Fellow
Isolation and characterization of prospective human multiple myeloma stem cells
Jianming Xie, Ph.D.
Direct physical tests of the “pseudodimer” model of T-cell activation
Tufts University, Boston, MA
Ernesto Muñoz, M.D.
The role of phase variation in S. pneumoniae carriage and invasive disease
University Health Network, Toronto, Canada
Marc Pellegrini, M.D., Ph.D.
Augmenting anti-tumor immune responses and inhibiting tumor growth to facilitate immune-mediated tumor rejection and clearance
Colin Reardon, Ph.D.
Fas-dependent activation and survival of T-cells in vivo
Yu-wen Su, Ph.D.
The role of 14-3-3s in immune development and lymphoid tumorigenesis
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Weiwen Deng, Ph.D.*
Regulation of the NKG2D ligand Mult1 by a ubiquitin-dependent pathway
Alex Christopher Engel, Ph.D.*
Mechanisms controlling localization and activation of intracellular Toll-like receptors
Niranjana Aditi Nagarajan, Ph.D.
The relevance of novel MHC class I ligands generated in the absence of ERAAP to cancer immunotherapy
Selvakumar Sukumar, Ph.D.
Identification of chromatin-modifying factors that regulate V(D)J recombination
Shana Topp, Ph.D.*
Glycan engineering of adenovirus vectors for cell-specific targeting
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Marcelo Behar, Ph.D.*
Temporal control of NF-kB signaling as a cancer drug target
Julien Y. Bertrand, Ph.D.
Dissecting the genesis of hematopoietic stem cells in zebrafish embryo
Qidong Hu, Ph.D.
Genome-wide characterization of macrophage-cancer cell interactions in hormone resistance in prostate and breast cancer
Sulakshana P. Mukherjee, Ph.D.*
A role for RelA:CBP interaction in transcription regulation
Oliver Matthew Pearce, Ph.D.*
The role of a non-human sialic acid from dietary sources in tumorigenesis and carcinoma proliferation
Xiaoyuan Song, Ph.D.
Genomic approaches to innate immunity-dependent hormone resistance in prostate cancer
Stephanie M.E. Truhlar, Ph.D.
Molecular mechanism by which IkB-a regulates NF-kB transcriptional activity
University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Diego Acosta-Alvear, Ph.D.*
Regulation of the unfolded protein response in multiple myeloma
Pauline M. Andreu, Ph.D.
Functional significance of Cathepsin C during epithelial development
Alexander John Bankovich, Ph.D.
Functional characterization of CD69/S1P1 complex signaling to analyze lymphocyte trafficking and tumor immunity
Peter Beemiller, Ph.D.*
Actin cytoskeletal regulation of the T-cell receptor signalosome
Irina L. Grigorova, Ph.D.
Imaging T lymphocyte migration and exit from the LNs: Role of integrins in both of these processes
Sandra Laurence Lopez-Vergès, Ph.D.
Human natural killer cell recognition by KIR [killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors] and CD94/NKG2 receptors
Erwan Mortier, Ph.D.
IL-15 and the regulation of immune homeostasis
Lishomwa Ndhlovu, Ph.D.
Irvington Institute/Dana Foundation Fellow
Dynamics of the HIV-specific CD8+ (killer) T-cell response in early/acute HIV infection
Mark T. Orr, Ph.D.
The role of CD94/NKG2 receptors in mediating NK and CD8+ T-cell immunity
Joseph C. Sun, Ph.D.
The role of DAP12-associated NK cell receptors in innate immunity and NK cell memory
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Ignacio Antonio Demarco, Ph.D.
Compartmentalization, transcription, and recombination dynamics of IgH loci
Prashant Venkat Kodgire, Ph.D.
Transcription, chromatin, and AID in somatic hypermutation of Ig genes
Rebecca Mathew, Ph.D.*
Characterization of the targets of promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger in NKT cells
Omita A. Trivedi, Ph.D.
Biosynthesis of a-branched glycosphingolipids: The microbial target for NKT lymphocytes
University of Colorado, Denver, CO
Brian P. O’Connor, Ph.D.
Semaphorins and plexins in HIV/AIDS: Regulation of co-stimulatory molecules and their ability to modulate lymphocyte and dendritic cell activity in the context of human HIV infection
University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Jennifer Drignat Stone, Ph.D.
Samuel and Ruth Engelberg Fellow
Targeting model cancer antigens with high-affinity T-cell receptors
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, College Park, MD
Lu Deng, Ph.D.
Structural basis for human tumor antigen recognition by CD4+ T cells
University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, MA
Jeroen E.J. Guikema, Ph.D.
DNA breaks in immunoglobulin class switching and chromosomal translocations
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Deanna A. Kulpa, Ph.D.
The effects of HIV nef protein on MHC class I trafficking in antigen-presenting cells
Boaz P. Levi, Ph.D.
Edmond J. Safra Memorial Fellow
Genetic analysis of mouse hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Christine Andrea Goetz, Ph.D.
Bcl-3 regulates germinal center formation via modulation of the p53 pathway
University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Doryen A. Bubeck, Ph.D.
Structural studies investigating antigen recognition and cell signaling of the T-cell receptor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Colby Zaph, Ph.D.
IL-25 regulates IL-17 production and chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Katja Engelmann, Ph.D.
Irvington Institute/Dana Foundation Fellow
MUC1 as a marker and a target on cancer stem and progenitor cells
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, TX
Zhucheng Chen, Ph.D.*
Inhibition and activation mechanisms of the WAVE regulatory complex
Da Jia, Ph.D.
The role of lysine methylation in regulating the actin cytoskeleton
University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA
Stacy M. Horner, Ph.D.
Hepatitis C virus controls innate immunity by targeting IPS-1 to establish chronic infection
Jeong Kim, Ph.D.
Inhibiting regulatory T-cell function for melanoma immunotherapy
Jennifer M. Lund-Friesen, Ph.D.
The role of regulatory T cells in immunity to a local viral infection
Chetan Seshadri, M.D.
Irvington Institute/Dana Foundation Fellow
Human T-cell responses to M. tuberculosis-associated lipid antigens
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Yanice V. Mendez-Fernandez, Ph.D.
The role of thymus leukemia antigen in modulating inflammation in the intestine
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
Joseph Lin, Ph.D.
Regulation of T-cell polarization and its role in effector functions
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY
Joana F. Barata, Ph.D.
Structural studies of RIG-1, a cytoplasmic germline-encoded pattern recognition receptor (PRR) involved in viral sensing
Su-Chang Lin, Ph.D.
Survival signaling of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis: Structural and functional studies
Jin Kuk Yang, Ph.D.
Molecular mechanism for the assembly of the death-inducing signaling complex and for the inhibition of Fas signaling by FLIP
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA
Stephanie Kristin Dougan, Ph.D.
The role of B lymphocytes in cross-presentation of tumor antigens
Haihui Lu, Ph.D.*
Heterotypic interaction between tumor-associated macrophage and breast tumor during epithelial-mesenchymal transition
The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA
Paulus Mrass, M.D.
Visualizing T-cell immune responses within the tumor microenvironment
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
Eran Elinav, M.D., Ph.D.*
Role and mechanisms of inflammasome dysregulation in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease
Ralf M. Leonhardt, Ph.D.*
Characterization of TAP- and tapasin-independent MHC class I-restricted melanoma epitopes
Carsten Mim, Ph.D.*
Structural studies on BAR proteins and their role in membrane remodeling
Yarden Opatowsky, Ph.D.
Structural studies of ligand-induced activation of the c-Kit receptor
Dominik Schenten, Ph.D.
Exploring the tissue-specific functions of Toll-like receptors in adaptive immunity
Rashu Bhargava Seth, Ph.D.
Targeting high-fidelity and error-prone repair pathways during somatic hypermutation
Sunny Shin, Ph.D.
How the cytosolic innate immune receptor, Birc1e, regulates the immune response to intracellular pathogens
Tim Willinger, M.D., Ph.D.
Role of dynamin 2 in T-cell homeostasis and trafficking
Weiming Yuan, Ph.D.
Molecular mechanisms of lipid loading by human CD1d molecules