Department of Microbiology-Immunology: J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, PhD

Title: Next Generation Precision Animal Models for Biomedical Research

Speaker: J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, PhD

Host: Mojgan Naghavi,phD

Topic:

The applications of current humanized mouse models for biomedical research would be significantly broadened by the inclusion of human non-hematopoietic cell types, the primary targets of most human pathogens, that can present antigen to autologous human immune cells in the full context of HLA. When epithelial, endothelial, mesenchymal and smooth muscle cells are incorporated into humanized BLT mice, emerging and clinically relevant human pathogens such as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Zika virus, respiratory syncytial virus, and cytomegalovirus replicate in vivo in these models. Direct inoculation of the model with HCMV induces HCMV-specific human IgM, IgG and T cell responses that can effectively control infection in vivo. These new models can be used to study pathogen replication, pathogenesis, immune reactivity and human therapies in the context of a fully functional human immune system.

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