Seminar Wednesday 13:00 - 14:00
Professor D Branch Moody, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Professor Moody directs a laboratory that studies basic and translational questions of bacterial pathogenesis and human immune response. The central focus of his work is to understand how human dendritic cells, CD1 proteins, Toll-like receptors and T cell receptors mediate human immune response to M. tuberculosis infection and autoimmune disease. Focusing on the CD1 system for 20 years, he identified glucose monomycolate as the first structurally defined glycolipid antigen for the CD1 system. Using mass spectrometry they subsequently identified many lipid antigens f or T cells, including dideoxymycobactins, phosphomycoketides and human skin oils. Moving from in vitro molecular studies to the ex vivo realm of translational immunology, they worked with John Altman to develop human CD1a, CD1b and CD1c tetramers. Current studies focus on T cell responses during tuberculosis infection and skin diseases. In particular, they have identified a population of IL-22 producing human T cells that recognize CD1a and skin lipids, which represents a previously unknown type of T cell in humans.
[Hosted by Professor Jonathan Blackburn]