| | Immunology Faculty: Andrew D. Wells, Ph.D. (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-07-20) |
 | | T cells must proliferate and differentiate in order to attack pathogens, initiate autoimmune pathology, or reject transplanted organs. |
 | | We are using mice genetically engineered to lack these inhibitory proteins, as well as retroviral vectors that overexpress these factors, to investigate whether modulation of cell cycle progression can directly influence T cell differentiation and tolerance induction, and in turn whether these factors can be targeted in approaches to induce tolerance during transplantation. |
 | | To date, we have found that T cells deficient in the expression of the CDK inhibitors p27kip1 or p18ink4 are hyper-responsive to growth factor receptor signals, and are refractory to the anti-proliferative and anergy-inducing effects of treatments that induce tolerance in normal T cell populations. |
| www.med.upenn.edu /immun/Faculty/wells.html (627 words) |