The Immunogenetics Laboratory
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The Immunogenetics Laboratory is studying the genetics of the body's natural defense system and its role in disease in order to find ways to modify it. Controlling the immune response could help reduce rejection and graft-versus-host disease in organ and tissue transplant, offer ways to improve treatment of immune-related disorders, and lead to new and improved vaccines. Directed by Mary Sue Leffell, Ph.D., and Andrea Zachary, Ph.D., the Laboratory both provides support for others and conducts research.
Among ongoing projects are those to identify and examine the genetics of immune responses that contribute to transplant rejection, graft-versus-host disease, and response to vaccines. Others are working to identify the mechanisms by which certain treatments change the body's response to tissue transplantation, which may one day offer a way to identify patients at higher risk for rejecting transplants.
The laboratory also has helped organize and conduct national workshops to better define the HLA system in racial minorities and maintains cell and DNA repositories that make valuable characterized reagents and cells available to scientists worldwide. Clinical services include histocompatibility testing ("matching") for kidney, pancreas, heart, lung, liver, and bone marrow transplant and for blood transfusions and post-transplant monitoring for rejection or graft-versus-host-disease.
