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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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The new Georgia Tech Center for ImmunoEngineering invites you to attend our ImmunoEngineering Trainee Seminar Series to bring together members of the bio community interested in and doing research in ImmunoEngineering.
To present:
Jardin Leleux
Krishnendu Roy, PhD - Advisor
"Investigation of Pathogen-Mimicking Particles for Delivery of Vaccine Components in Murine Tumor Models"
Many state-of-the-art cancer therapies result in serious side effects, recurrence and eventually lead to death. An alternative, tumor antigen based immunotherapy, has been explored extensively as a strategy to trigger self-maintained immunity against tumor burdens. Significant research has gone into developing delivery vehicles to continue to boost immune cell recognition and processing of these small molecules.
The previous work done in the Roy lab has produced a microparticle delivery system that has successfully induced significant immune protection against tumor challenge. However, considering the hurdle of translating murine vaccines to clinically relevant ones, the current vaccine strategy still must be strengthened.
The goal of this work is to produce a particle based vaccine delivery system that will induce a more robust, long-lasting immune response in murine cancer models. To optimize such vaccines, we will study how particle parameters, mainly size and antigen/adjuvant release mechanism affect dendritic cell response in vitro and protection provided to tumor challenged mice in vivo.
Ed Botchwey, PhD - Advisor
"Tuning the immuno-regenerative response to inflammatory injury through sphingolipid therapeutics"
Control of guided cell trafficking is essential for development, homeostasis, pathology, and regeneration. Modulation of the temporal-spatial recruitment of particular populations of inflammatory cells is a key target for promoting tissue regeneration, including microvascular growth and remodeling. Lipid mediators such as sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) have recently become recognized for their essential roles in spatial guidance, signaling, and ability to modify the sensitivity of cells to other chemokines and growth factors. Here we will discuss the role of S1P receptors in the differential recruitment of two distinct subsets of monocytes, CD45+CD11b+Ly6C+Gr1+CX3CR1lo inflammatory and CD45+CD11b+Ly6C-Gr1-CX3CR1hianti-inflammatory monocytes. We demonstrate that local sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 3 agonism skews the balance of local cytokines from inflammatory to pro-regenerative and selectively recruits anti-inflammatory monocytes to remodeling vessels leading to enhanced arteriogenesis and angiogenesis. This work establishes a role for S1P receptor signaling in the local conditioning of tissues that preferentially recruit regenerative monocytes that can enhance healing outcomes, tissue regeneration, and biomaterial implant functionality.
