The School of Biological Sciences and The Allergan Foundation
Speaker:
Ralph M. Steinman - Henry G. Kunkel Professor and Senior Physician Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Immunology The Rockefeller University
Subject:
The Allergan Foundation Lecture Series in Modern Biology - Manipulating your Immune System for Better Vaccines Against Pathogens, Cancer, Allergy, and Autoimmune Disorders
Location:
The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineeering
100 Academy Way
Irvine, CA 92617
The traditional vaccines that we know induce immunity against specific microbes and prevent many infectious diseases. This major success story was initiated in large part by the discoveries of Louis Pasteur long before the onset of immunological science. Now after great advances in immunology during the twentieth century, a new vaccine era that directly harnesses immune principles has finally arrived. The new vaccines that immunological research can now develop will deliver the relevant antigens (target pieces of a microbe, tumor, allergen, etc.) and adjuvants, substances that work together with antigen to enhance or silence immunity, and thereby alter the immune system to the individual’s benefit. New vaccines will not only induce the type of response appropriate to protect against a particular microbe but also have considerable promise to treat other causes of disease such as cancer, autoimmunity, allergy or transplant rejection.
Dr. Steinman, who was a key investigator in the initial description of, and subsequent characterization of dendritic cells, will discuss these cells as a key target for a new vaccine science. By studying dendritic cells in vivo, we can move beyond the standard approach of injecting a vaccine and hoping for an immune response. Instead there are ways to harness the initiating and controlling events mediated by dendritic cells to direct the desired immune response.
Reservations required at 949.824.2500 or biosci-events@uci.edu. Event and parking are free.
