Department of Comparative Medicine

Brian M. Iritani, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Professor

D.V.M., Washington State University 1988
Ph.D., Immunology, University of Washington 1997
Clinical Residency, Lab Animal Medicine, University of Washington 1996
Research Post-doctoral Fellow, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 1999

P: 206-221-3932
F: 206-685-3006
E: biritani@uw.edu

Research, Service, and Training Interests

Dr. Iritani joined the Faculty in Comparative Medicine in 1999.  His major clinical interests include small animal medicine and surgery.  He is currently a Senior Clinical Veterinarian, Director of Surgery, Co-Director of Training Programs, Director of Clerkship Training for Veterinary Students.  He is a member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Consortium, Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (NORC), Diabetes and Endocrine Research Center (DERC), Solid tumor and translational research team (STTR), Molecular and Cellular Biology  (MCB) Graduate Program, Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD).  Dr. Iritani serves on numerous NIH Study Sections in Basic Immunology and is on the Editorial Review Boards for Comparative Medicine and JAALAS.

The Iritani lab studies the normal functions of oncoproteins and other signaling molecules in the development and function of immune cells, and how when dysregulated, aberrant expression or activity can result in immunodeficiency diseases or cancer.  Among the oncoproteins the Iritani lab studies include the Ras GTPases, Raf kinase, and the Myc family of transcriptional regulators. More recently the Iritani lab has become interested in the metabolic control of lymphocyte development by the Folliculin Interacting Proteins (Fnip1 and Fnip2), and the regulation of immune cell functions by Hematopoietic Protein-1 (Hem1) and the actin cytoskeleton.

Complete Bibliography

Selected Publications

The metabolic regulator Fnip1 is crucial for iNKT cell development. .
Park, H., Tsang, M., Iritani, BM*, and MJ Bevan* (2014). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 13;111(19):7066-71. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1406473111. Epub 2014 Apr 30. PMID: 24785397.  * co-corresponding authors

Control of B Lymphocyte Development and Functions by the mTOR Signaling Pathways.
Iwata, I., Ramirez, J., Park, H., and B.M. Iritani. Cytokine and Growth Factor Reviews, online May 23, 2017.

Integrative Network Analysis Identifies Key Regulators of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Pathogenesis.
Lauren A. Peters, Jacqueline Perrigoue, Arthur Mortha, Alina Iuga, Won-min Song, Eric M. Neiman , Sean Llewyllan, Brian A. Kidd, Shannon Telesco, Aleksandar Stojmirovic, Jocelyn Sendecki, Shameer Khader, Riccardo Miotta, Ke Hao, Bojan Losic ,Hardik Shah, Yongzhong Zhao, Antonio Di Narzo, Minghui Wang,  Jeremiah Faith, Miriam Merad, Joel T. Dudley, Andrew Kasarskis, Carrie Brodmerkel, Mark Curran, Anuk Das, Joshua R. Friedman, Yoshinori Fukui, Mary Beth Humphrey, Brian M. Iritani, et al (2017) Nature Genetics, online Sept 11, 2017 doi:10.1038/ng.3947  

Folliculin Interacting Protein-1 Maintains Metabolic Homeostasis During B cell Development by Modulating AMPK, mTORC1, and Tfe3
Ramirez-Komo, J.A.,  Iwata, T., Park, H., Tsang, M., Kang, J., Cui, K., Kwong, W., James, R.G., Baba, M., Schmidt, L.S., and B.M. Iritani (2019). The Journal of Immunology. Dec 1;203(11):2899-2908. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1900395. Epub 2019 Nov 1.

Metabolism meets Immunodeficiency Disease.
Brian Iritani (2021). Blood 137(4):436-437.

The actin-regulatory protein Hem-1 is essential for alveolar macrophage development. 
Suwankitwat. N., Libby, S., Liggitt, HD., Avalos, A., Ruddell, A., Rosch, JW, Park, H., and B. M. Iritani (2021). The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Apr 5;218(4):e20200472. doi: 10.1084/jem.20200472.

Hem-1 regulates T-independent antibody production, protective immunity, and limits autoantibody production in a B cell specific manner.
Avalos, A., Teitsort, J., Suwankitwat, N., Jackson, S., Woods. J, Christodoulou, A., Morrill, C., Liggitt, HD, Zhu, C., Li, QZ., Bui., K., Park,H., and B.M. Iritani (2022). The Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, May 9;7(9):e153597.doi10.1172/jci.insight.153595. PMID:3553195