Emil Unanue - F1000 Section Head (since 11 July 2001)
School of Medicine, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University in St Louis , St. Louis, MO, USA
BIOGRAPHY
ACADEMIC POSITION:Paul & Ellen Lacy Professor, Pathology and Immunology, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine
EDUCATION:
Dr Unanue graduated in medicine in 1960 from the University of Havana, Cuba. He trained from 1961 to 1970 in Pittsburgh and La Jolla in the United States and at the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London. In 1985 he joined Harvard University Medical School, where he became Mallinckrodt Professor of Immunopathology.
HONORS AND AWARDS:
Dr Unanue's long record of distinctions includes the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award and Membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has also made distinguished contributions as a speaker, author, editor and member of scientific organizations and has been Chair of the National Academy of Sciences Section of Microbiology and Immunology.
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
The long-term goal of the laboratory is to understand antigen presentation both at the cellular and biochemical level. And to correlate such antigen presentation to the response of CD4 T lymphocytes. Our focus is on biochemical and biological parameters related to antigen selection, recognition and processing by antigen presenting cells (APC). The laboratory combines biochemical analysis of peptide binding to class II-MHC molecules, examination of the MHC-peptidome from APC using mass spectrometry approaches, cell biological analysis of presentation, with the examination of CD4 T cells directed to the selected peptides and their biological responses.
The laboratory splits into three overlapping areas, all centered on antigen presentation. A number of investigations examine, using model protein antigens such as the protein hen egg-white lysozyme (HEL), the cellular and biochemical events in antigen processing and presentation as well as the biology of APC, specifically macrophages and dendritic cells (DC). We have an extensive research program examining the basis of autoimmune diabetes using two experimental models; that of mice bearing HEL under the insulin promoter, and that of the spontaneous diabetes of the NOD mouse. Finally, the laboratory has been examining the model of Listeria monocytogenes infection of the mouse, examining for early events that impinge on presentation of CD4 epitopes.
A brief history of the accomplishments of our laboratory was recently published in Nature Immunology, 7: 1277-1279, 2006 'From antigen processing to peptide-MHC binding'. See also 'Making antigen presentable' by Paul Allen in J Immunol, 179: 3-4, 2007.