다음과 같이 충북대학교 종양연구소 초청세미나를 개최하오니 연구원들의 많은 참여 바랍니다.

-  다  음  -

1. 연자 : 임신혁 교수 ( 광주과학기술원 생명과학과)

2. 일시 : 2004년 9월 10일 금요일 12시

3. 연제 : Cellular and molecular mechanism of Immune Tolerance 

4. 장소 : 종양연구소 106호실 (세미나실)

5. 발표내용 : 
Immune tolerance is the mechanism of maintaining immunological homeostasis and dysregulated immune response is related with many immunological disorders such as autoimmunity, cancers, viral infection and hypersensitivity. Proper regulation of the immune response is important to protect the organism against dangerous exogenous pathogens (immunity) while suppressing the immune response against self-antigens (tolerance).  Therefore, proper understanding of the mechanism of immune tolerance may lead to the design of therapeutic agents that can modulate lymphocyte responses either positively or negatively.

I will discuss three subjects during a seminar as listed below

1. NFAT-mediated signaling in T-cell tolerance; NFAT imposes a genetic program of lymphocyte tolerance (anergy) that is associated with the activation of specific set of “anery associated genes”.

2. Chromatin-level regulation of the IL10 gene in T cells: IL-10 is an immunoregulatory cytokine produced by diverse cell populations. We analyzed chromatin structural differences within the IL10 gene in differentiated Th1 and Th2 cells, and emphasize the surprising diversity of mechanisms used to regulate cytokine gene expression at the chromatin level.

3. Development of antigen-specific oral tolerogen for a treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG): MG is an anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR)-mediated autoimmune disease at the neuromuscular junction. A recombinant AChR has been developed as a possible tolerogen in treating ongoing animal model of MG. Currently we are working on development of chimeric recombinant AChRs that contain major T cell epitopes in MG patients without B cell epitopes of MG, which will be applicable for clinical trials in a near future.