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Stephen J. McSorley,
Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Medicine
Glasgow University, 1995, Ph.D.
mcsor002@umn.edu
612-626-9905 office
612-626-9959 lab
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Research Interests:
Immunity to Salmonella
Salmonella typhi causes typhoid fever, a common
infection in a many developing nations. The World Health Organization
estimates that there are around 21 million cases of typhoid
fever per year and of these approximately 216,000 are fatal.
Current typhoid vaccines are only moderately effective or
unsafe for use by the very young or elderly. Research in our
laboratory focuses on understanding the activation of innate
and adaptive immune responses to Salmonella with
a view to development of novel typhoid vaccines.
CD4 T cells and antibody are responsible for providing protective
immunity to Salmonella infection and our laboratory is interested
in understanding how these adaptive responses are initiated
and develop in vivo. We have developed reagents to physically
track Salmonella-specific T cells and are particularly
interested in the activation of these cells in the intestine.
Our recent studies have examined mucosal dendritic cell populations,
defined by chemokine receptor expression, and the role that
these cells play in mediating T cell activation to mucosal
pathogens.
A number of years ago, we identified Salmonella flagellin
as a target of the innate and adaptive immune system during
Salmonella infection. Flagellin is an unusual antigen
that can be recognized by Salmonella-specific CD4
T cells and is also recognized by the innate pattern recognition
receptor TLR-5. Flagellin may therefore possess unique vaccine
capabilities when used as a sub-unit vaccine or vaccine adjuvant.
Our laboratory is actively exploring the use of flagellin
as a vaccine adjuvant, and determining how flagellin activates
innate immune responses in vivo.
Selected Recent Publications:
- Griffin, A. Baraho-Hussan, D., and S.J. McSorley. (2009)
Successful treatment of bacterial infection hinders development
of acquired immunity. J. Immunol. (In press)
- Srinivasan, A., Nanton, M., Griffin, A., and S.J. McSorley.
(2009) In vivo culling of activated CD4 T cells driven by
Salmonella virulence genes. J.
Immunol. 182:7838.
- Salazar-Gonzalez, R.M., A. Srinivasan, A. Griffin, G.
Muralimohan, J.M. Ertelt, R. Ravindran, A.T. Vella, and
S.J. McSorley. (2007) Salmonella flagellin induces bystander
activation of splenic dendritic cells and hinders bacterial
replication in vivo. J.
Immunol. 179:6169.
- Ravindran, R., L. Rusch, A. Itano, M.K. Jenkins, and S.J.
McSorley. (2007) CCR6-dependent recruitment of blood phagocytes
is necessary for rapid CD4 T cell responses to local bacterial
infection. Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. 104:12075.
- Srinivasan, A., R. Salzar-Gonzalez, M. Jarcho, M.M. Sandau,
L. Lefrancois, and S.J. McSorley. (2007) Innate immune activation
of CD4 T cells in Salmonella-infected mice is dependent
on IL-18. J.
Immunol. 178:6342.
- Srinivasan, A., and S.J. McSorley. (2007) Pivotal Advance:
Suppression of CD4 T cell activation during murine typhoid
following secondary exposure to LPS. J.
Leuk. Biol. 81:403.
- Salazar-Gonzalez, R.M., J.H. Niess, D.J. Zammit, R. Ravindran,
A. Srinivasan,J.R. Maxwell, T. Stoklasek, R. Yadav, I.R.
Williams, X. Gu, B.A. McCormick,M.A. Pazos, A.T. Vella,
L. Lefrancois, H-C. Reinecker, and S.J. McSorley. (2006)
CCR6-mediated dendritic cell activation of pathogen-specific
T cells in Peyer's patches. Immunity
24:623-632.
Last modified on: June 8, 2009
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