The development of an HIV vaccine has proven extraordinarily difficult. One of the reasons is that naïve precursor B cells that can give rise to mature B cells producing broadly neutralizing antibodies are exceedingly rare within the average human. Yet, despite their low frequency these B cell precursors can outcompete their B cell competitors under the right conditions.
Helper T cells move toward inflamed tissue using membrane protrusions that stabilize them and provide traction on the vasculature. Using high-resolution microscopy and global molecular analysis, the team shows that immature T cells lack these protrusions but that maturing T-cells switch on a gene expression program to create material to construct them.
A team of physicians, scientists and biostatisticians from La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and UC San Diego School of Medicine joined forces across institutions to successfully compete for an $6.9 million grant to establish one of only 10 PrecISE Network Clinical Centers nationwide.
In 2012, LJI researcher Toshiaki Kawakami, M.D., Ph.D., reported that a small protein aptly named histamine-releasing factor (HRF) played a pro-inflammatory role in asthma. The current paper reports a novel biochemical mechanism governing HRF activity, paves the way for blood tests to predict which patients will respond to allergy therapy, and strongly supports the idea that drugs designed to block HRF could prevent food allergy attacks.
A study by LJI researcher Dr. Sujan Shresta reports that mice rendered immune to dengue show "cross-protection" from subsequent Zika infection and then identifies specific types of immune T-cells capable of defending against both viruses. These revelations have profound implications for efforts to build a potent anti-Zika vaccine.
Mouse models have advanced our understanding of immune function and disease in many ways but they have failed to account for the natural diversity in human immune responses. As a result, insights gained in the lab may be lost in translation. In their latest study, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, developed a new approach to model human immune variation in the lab that overcomes the limitations of traditional mouse models.
For decades, HIV has successfully evaded all efforts to create an effective vaccine but researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI) are steadily inching closer. Their latest study, published in the current issue of Immunity, demonstrates that optimizing the mode and timing of vaccine delivery is crucial to inducing a protective immune response in a preclinical model.
In recent years, immunotherapy, a new form of cancer therapy that rouses the immune system to attack tumor cells, has captivated the public’s imagination. When it works, the results are breathtaking. But more often than not it doesn’t, and scientists still don’t know why.
Superficially, psoriasis and atopic dermatitis may appear similar but their commonalities are only skin deep. Atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema, is primarily driven by an allergic reaction, while psoriasis is considered an autoimmune disease. Nevertheless, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology were able to pinpoint a common driver of skin inflammation in both diseases.
Professor Klaus Ley, M.D., has been selected as this year’s winner of the Eugene M. Landis Award, the Microcirculatory Society’s top honor, in recognition of his pioneering work in vascular biology and microcirculation. The microcirculation comprises all the small blood vessels in all tissues and organs and their contents (blood plasma and blood cells).
Dr. Alessandro Sette’s team at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology has been named Best Academic Research Team as part of the 10th Vaccine Industry Excellence Awards at this year’s World Vaccine Congress 2017 held in Washington. The ViE Awards celebrate the outstanding contributions and achievements of leaders who continually set standards of excellence and advocacy in vaccine development.
One reason we survive into adulthood is that cell-killing T cells usually recognize and eliminate cancerous or pathogen-infected cells. But prolonged overactivity of immune cells summoned to a tumor or infection site can render them useless to dispatch invaders, a cellular state immunologists call "exhaustion." Fortunately, cancer researchers are devising effective immunotherapies to counter exhaustion and re-motivate immune cells to eradicate a patient's tumor
Although Zika and dengue are considered different virus “species,” they are so closely related that the immune system treats Zika just like another version of dengue, report researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. Their latest study, published in the March 13, 2017, advance online edition of Nature Microbiology, shows that pre-existing immunity to dengue virus modulates the magnitude and breadth of the immune system’s T cell response to Zika.
The worst of the global Zika virus outbreak may be over but many key questions remain, such as why the virus persists in certain tissues after the systemic infection has cleared; how does the immune system counteract the virus and protect against reinfection; what determines the likelihood of long-term complications?
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes harboring parasitic Zika virus (ZIKV) are the primary transmitters of virus to humans, potentially causing catastrophic congenital microcephaly in babies born to women bitten by infected mosquitoes. But confirmation earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that ZIKV can also be sexually transmitted raised new alarm that virus could be passed between sexual partners in venues far from mosquito habitats.
In a bid to better understand the gene expression patterns that control T cell activity, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology mapped genome-wide changes in chromatin accessibility as T cells respond to acute and chronic virus infections.
Members of the TET family of proteins help protect against cancer by regulating the chemical state of DNA —and thus turning growth-promoting genes on or off. The latest findings reported by researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology illustrate just how important TET proteins are in controlling cell proliferation and cell fate.
The fate of stem cells is determined by series of choices that sequentially narrow their available options until stem cells’ offspring have found their station and purpose in the body. Their decisions are guided in part by TET proteins rewriting the epigenome, the regulatory layer of chemical flags that adorn the genome and influence gene activity, report researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and UC San Diego.
The cornerstone of genetics is the loss-of-function experiment. In short, this means that to figure out what exactly gene X is doing in a tissue of interest—be it developing brain cells or a pancreatic tumor—you somehow cut out, switch off or otherwise destroy gene X in that tissue and then watch what happens. That genetic litmus test has been applied since before people even knew the chemical DNA is what makes up genes. What has changed radically are the tools used by biologists to inactivate a gene.
La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI) is among the 25 leading research and public health organizations from Latin America, North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe gathered in Recife for the launch of ZikaPLAN (Zika Preparedness Latin American Network). This global initiative, created in response to a Horizon 2020 funding call by the European Commission’s Directorate-General Research and Innovation, has been formed to address the Zika virus outbreak and the many research and public health challenges it poses.
Concerns over the Zika virus have focused on pregnant women due to mounting evidence that it causes brain abnormalities in developing fetuses. However, new research in mice from scientists at The Rockefeller University and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology suggests that certain adult brain cells may be vulnerable to infection as well.
As an arm of the innate immune system, white blood cells called neutrophils form the first line of defense against invading pathogens. Neutrophils spend most of their lives racing through the bloodstream, patrolling for bacteria or other foreign particles. Once they arrive at tissues besieged by infectious agents, they halt on a dime and then blast through the vessel wall to reach the inflammatory attack site.
The two teams will receive a total of more than $5 million to study immune defense mechanisms in the intestine.
A powerful arm of the immune system is production of antibodies that circulate through the blood and neutralize invading pathogens. Although B cells actually manufacture antibody proteins, the process is aided by neighboring T cells, which shower B cells with cytokines to make them churn out high-quality antibody proteins—and remember how to do so. Given the essential function of "helper" T cells, researchers have long sought to define biological signals that encourage their development.
LA JOLLA, CA—Follicular helper T cells (Tfh cells), a rare type of T cells, are indispensible for the maturation of antibody-producing B cells. They promote the proliferation of B cells that produce highly selective antibodies against invading pathogens while weeding out those that generate potentially harmful ones. In their latest study, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology identified a key signal that drives the commitment of immature Tfh cells into fully functional Tfh cells and thus driving the step-by-step process that results in a precisely tailored and effective immune response.
Some people infected with HIV naturally produce antibodies that effectively neutralize many strains of the rapidly mutating virus, and scientists are working to develop a vaccine capable of inducing such “broadly neutralizing” antibodies that can prevent HIV infection.
La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI) has received a $5 million gift, which will help establish the Mission Support for Cancer Immunology and Oncology Research, the Institute announced today. The gift has been made by Pfizer Inc., one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, in recognition of LJI’s impact on the field of immunology over the last three decades and the immune system’s important role in fighting cancer.
It is normal—in fact necessary—for our immune system to occasionally fly into an inflammatory rage to defend the host (us) against pathogens or even tumor cells. Problems arise when the rage persists or is re-directed against one’s self, as occurs in autoimmune disease.
An estimated 15 million Americans suffer from food allergies, many of them children. These are non-trivial concerns, as food allergy or intolerance can cause symptoms ranging from a harmless skin rash to a potentially lethal anaphylactic shock. The good news is that many affected children outgrow their allergy, presumably as the immune system learns to tolerate food initially mistaken as “foreign”.
The La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI) is pleased to announce that an international team led by LJI investigator Alessandro Sette, Ph.D., is one of four recipients of a Human Immune Profiling Consortium (HIPC) grant in 2015. With this prestigious grant, the LJI team will characterize the immune response to dengue virus (DENV) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), both of which represent major global health challenges.
HardTech Labs LLC (HTL) has partnered with La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI) to establish a joint venture, HTL Life, that will converge HTL’s existing focus on software and hardware with LJI’s expertise in life sciences to develop next generation technologies for human health and wellness.
Members of the TET (short for ten-eleven translocation) family have been known to function as tumor suppressors for many years, but how they keep a lid on the uncontrolled cell proliferation of cancer cells had remained uncertain. Now, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology demonstrate that TET proteins collectively constitute a major class of tumor suppressors and are required to maintain genome instability.
The ebb and flow of intracellular calcium concentrations is a universal mode of communication in mammalian cells. Researchers at La Jolla Institute identified the matchmaker that brings two critical calcium channel components together, thus allowing calcium to rush into the fluid-filled space known as cytosol.
Multiple sclerosis, a debilitating neurological disease, is triggered by self-reactive T cells that successfully infiltrate the brain and spinal cord where they launch an aggressive autoimmune attack against myelin, the fatty substance that surrounds and insulates nerve fibers. In their latest study, published in the Nov. 2, 2015, advance online issue of Nature Immunology, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology report that these disease-causing autoimmune T cells are lured into the nervous system by monocytes and macrophages, a subset of immune cells better known as the immune system’s cleanup crew.
Among foot soldiers on the immune front line is a subpopulation of white blood cells called “patrolling monocytes,” whose job is to cruise the bloodstream, cart off cellular debris, and block invasion of a less benign population of inflammatory cells. Now, a study from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LJI) illustrates that patrolling monocytes may also play an anti-cancer role, particularly in the lung.
Follicular helper Tcells (TFH cells), a rare type of immune cell that is essential for inducing a strong and lasting antibody response to viruses and other microbes, have garnered intense interest in recent years but the molecular signals that drive their differentiation had remained unclear. Now, a team of researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology has identified a pair of master regulators that control the fate of TFH cells.
Although critically important for shaping the immune response and maintaining self-tolerance, how regulatory T cells (Treg cells) hold on to their immune-suppressive powers had remained unclear. Now, for the first time, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology identified a molecular pathway that maintains the stability and function of Treg cells.
Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, in collaboration with colleagues the University of California, San Diego, identified a novel drug target for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis that focuses on the cells that are directly responsible for the cartilage damage in affected joints.
When fighting chronic viral infections or cancers, a key division of the immune system, known as CD8 T cells, sometimes loses its ability to effectively fight foreign invaders. Overcoming so-called T cell exhaustion is crucial to treating persistent infections but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has awarded La Jolla Institute (LJI) researcher Stephanie Stanford, Ph.D., a $1.6 million grant to investigate the genetic and environmental factors that trigger the onset of type 1 diabetes.
In a study published yesterday in the scientific journal Nature Immunology, a group at the La Jolla Institute (LJI) led by Pandurangan Vijayanand, Ph.D. identify new genes that likely contribute to asthma, a disease that currently affects over 200 million people world wide.
Research toward the world’s first vaccine for heart disease continues to advance at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, with researchers demonstrating significant arterial plaque reduction in concept testing in mice.
A major discovery that brings a new drug target to the increasingly exciting landscape of cancer immunotherapy was published yesterday by researchers from La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and their collaborators from other institutes.
Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology have revealed a critical player in the cellular interactions leading to eczema – a chronic inflammatory skin condition affecting more than 14 million U.S. children and adults.
A major new finding that will significantly advance efforts to create the world’s first antibody-based AIDS vaccine was published today by researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology.
La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology has earned the Number 1 ranking in The Scientist magazine’s 2013 “Best Places to Work in Academia” survey of the worldwide academic research community.
La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and Kyowa Hakko Kirin California, Inc. (KKC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. (KHK), a global specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced the signing of a new agreement that marks another milestone in one of the most enduring industry-academic collaborations in the world.
Herbert A. Wertheim, O.D., D.Sc., M.D. (hc), a noted inventor, philanthropist, and optometric and visual science industry pioneer, has been elected to La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology’s Board of Directors.
A major study from researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology provides new revelations about the intricate pathways involved in turning on T cells, the body’s most important disease-fighting cells, and was published today in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. The La Jolla Institute team is the first to prove that a certain type of protein, called septins, play an essential role in T cell activation.
Seeking to improve the lives of sickle cell anemia sufferers around the world, researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, the Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center in Boston and the BloodCenter of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and others are preparing to launch Phase II of a clinical trial to investigate a potential new therapy for reducing the disorder’s severest symptoms. More than 100,000 Americans and several million people worldwide suffer from this genetic disorder.
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