PBIO SEMINAR SERIES

Cellular and Molecular Choreography of Lymphocyte Activation

Wednesday - June 20, 2007
06-07 Seminar Series
T-639

Michael Cahalan
Professor and Chair U.C. Irvine
Speaker's website

Host: Sharona E. Gordon

Dynamic cellular and molecular events orchestrate the immune response. At the cellular level, I will describe how two-photon microscopy is revealing the choreography of lymphocytes and dendritic cells within lymphoid organs under basal conditions and during an immune response. When antigen is detected, a cascade of events within T lymphocytes leads to calcium influx through Calcium Release-Activated Calcium (CRAC) channels, providing a signal that is essential to activate gene expression, cytokine secretion and cell proliferation. At the molecular level, I will describe RNAi screens and expression studies that have allowed us to identify the triggering molecule (Stim) and the pore subunit (Orai) of the CRAC channel.