Andrew G. Farr, Ph.D.
Professor, Biological Structure and Immunology

Department Biological Structure
University of Washington
Office I 534 HSC, Box 357420
1959 NE Pacific Street
Seattle, WA 98195-7650
Tel: 206.685-1584
Fax: 206.543-1524
Email: farr@u.washington.edu

Farr Lab Members

Dr. Farr did his undergraduate work at the University of Colorado in Boulder and received his Ph.D. in Anatomy from the University of Chicago in 1975. He is affiliated with the University of Washington Diabetes Research Center and has been a member of the Department of Biological Structure at the University of Washington since 1982.

The efforts of this laboratory are directed at defining the non-lymphoid elements comprising the thymic environment, and gaining a better understanding of their contributions to the production and differentiation of T lymphocytes. A number of approaches are taken, including monoclonal antibody technology to define the phenotypic heterogeneity of the stromal cells comprising the thymic environment and to identify stromal cell surface molecules involved in T-lymphopoiesis. Molecular biological approaches are used to clone genes encoding stromal cell surface molecules and to generate soluble forms of these cell surface molecules as a means to assess their functional significance in vitro and in vivo. Tissue culture approaches are utilized to generate stromal cell lines representative of the different stromal cell populations and to assess their ability to support various aspects of T-lymphopoiesis in vitro. Finally, ultrastructural immunohistochemistry is used to precisely define the expression of cell interaction molecules within the thymic environment.

Students currently training in the Farr Lab: Nathan Yee

Recent publications:

Farr, A. G., Dooley, J. L., and Erickson, M. Organization of thymic medullary epithelial heterogeneity: implications for mechanisms of epithelial differentiation. Immunol. Rev. 189: 20-27, 2002

Fontenot, J.D., Rasmussen, J.P., Williams, L.M., Dooley, J.L., Farr, A.G., and Rudensky AY. Regulatory T cell lineage specification by the forkhead transcription factor foxp3. Immunity 22: 329-41, 2005.

Dooley, J., Erickson, M. Roelink, H., and Farr, A. G. The nude thymic rudiment lacking functional foxn1 resembles respiratory epithelium. Dev. Dynam. 223:1605-1612, 2005.

Gillard, G.O., and Farr, A.G., Contrasting models of promiscuous gene expression by thymic epithelium. J. Exp. Med., 202: 15-19, 2005.

Dooley, J., Erickson, M. and Farr, A.G. An organized medullary epithelial structure in the normal thymus oordinately expresses molecules of respiratory epithelium and phenotypically resembles the epithelial rudiment of nude mice. J. Immunol. 175:4331-4337, 2005.

Fontenot, J.D., Dooley, J. L., Farr, A. G., and Rudensky, A.Y. Developmental regulation of foxp3 expression during ontogeny. J. Exp. Med. 202:901-906, 2005.

Gillard, G. O., and Farr, A. G., Features of medullary thymic epithelium implicate postnatal development in maintaining epithelial heterogeneity and tissue-restricted antigen expression. J. Immunol. 176: 5815-24, 2006.

Dooley, J. L. Erickson, M. Gillard, G. O., and Farr, A.G. Cervical thymus in the mouse. J. Immunol. 176: 6484-90, 2006

Gillard GO, Dooley J, Erickson M, Peltonen L, Farr AG. Aire- dependent alterations in medullary thymic epithelium indicate a role for aire in thymic epithelial differentiation. J Immunol, 178 5:3007-3015, 2007.

Liston, A, Farr AG, Chen Z, Mathis D, Manley N, Rudensky A. Lack of expression and function for Foxp3 in the thymic epithelium. J Exp Med, 204:475-480, 2007.

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Updated 7/2/07