Jonathan Linehan

E-mail: lineh004@umn.edu

Year entered: 2007

Degree received:
B.S., Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, 2001

Thesis Research:

Resolution of infection with different pathogenic organisms may produce different types of memory cells. For example, the memory cells generated by infection with Listeria monocytogenes express the t-bet transcription factor and make interferon gamma (Th1-like memory), whereas memory cells from infection with parasitic Schistosoma mansoni express GATA-3 and produce IL-4 (Th2-like memory). I am interested in studying the function, phenotype, plasticity, trafficking, and protective capacity of different memory cell populations that all have the same specificity. I will do this by analyzing CD4 memory T cells after infection with different pathogenic organisms that each ectopically express the same soluble protein antigen. I will track memory cells with a tetramer that binds to these antigen specific CD4 T cells. Using this method, I hope to better elucidate what defines these different memory subsets.