Scientific Partners Distinguished Lecture Series cosponsored by the Dean’s Seminar Series featuring Mary Carrington, PhD

Scientific Partners Distinguished Lecture Series cosponsored by the Dean’s Seminar Series

Mary Carrington, PhD
Director, Basic Science Program
Frederick National Laboratory

Title & Abstract: 

“Immunogentic variation: The benefits of a protective variant against one disease can increase the risk of another”

Genetic variation at the HLA loci, as well as other genes involved in the immune response, has been shown to influence risk of developing (or outcome to) infectious disease, cancer, autoimmunity, and reproductive disease in humans.  The HLA genes encode molecules that present foreign peptides to T cells, initiating an acquired immune response.  These genes display extensive polymorphism, which is under balancing selection such that we as a species are able to resist a wide variety of pathogenic organisms.  Genetic variants that have biologically-relevant consequences may protect against one disease, but confer susceptibility to another.  These forces are particularly evident at the highly polymorphic HLA loci, and they are also known to occur at other genetic loci that contain limited variation.  I will discuss examples of this genetic balancing act, concentrating most heavily on the HLA class I loci.

Zoom link  (Meeting ID: 965 4688 5603 Passcode: 221958)