Polly Matzinger, Ph.D.

Chief, T-Cell Tolerance and Memory Section
Senior Investigator

Description of Research Program

The T-Cell Tolerance and Memory Section is engaged in elucidating the answers to three fundamental questions in immunology:

1. What turns an immune response on and off?
2. How does the immune system remember its past encounters?
3. What regulates the effector class of an immune response?

The laboratory is currently working on the basis of a new theoretical view of the immune system. The new model starts with the idea that the driving force for an immune response is not the recognition of foreign antigen but the recognition of danger. The idea is that incoming viruses, bacteria, worms, and other pathogens create damage in the tissues they inhabit. These tissues relay alarm signals to activate the local sentries (the dendritic cells) to initiate immune responses. We are trying to find the tissue-generated alarm signals. We also are studying several implications of the model in such areas as pregnancy, autoimmune disease and transplantation.

Awards

1986 Kolm Film Festival, for special excellence in the educational film category, for "Das Immunosystem" ("Immunity: The Inside Story")

Editorial Boards

• Immunobiology
• Seminars in Immunology
• International Archives of Allergy and Immunology
• Current Opinion in Immunology
• Reviewer for Nature, Science, Journal of Experimental Medicine
• Medical Research Council (Great Britain)
• Medical Research Council (Canada) Life Science Foundation

Advisory Boards

• James A. Baker Center for Animal Research, Cornell University
• Council for the Advancement of Science Writing
• Life Sciences Foundation

Research Group Members

Colin Anderson, Susanna Celli, Stefania Gallucci, John P. Ridge, T. Kamala, Onal Alpan.

Selected Publications

(See current list in PubMed.)

DiRosa F, Matzinger P. Long lasting CD8 T cell memory in the absence of CD4 T cells or B cells. Journal of Experimental Medicine. 1996. 183: 2153-2163.

Epstein MM, DiRosa F, Jankovic D, Sher A, Matzinger P. Successful T cell priming in B cell deficient mice. Journal of Experimental Medicine. 1995. 182: 915-922.

Fuchs E, Matzinger, P. B cells turn off virgin but not memory T cells. Science. 1992. 258: 1156-1159.

Matzinger P. Tolerance, danger, and the extended family. Annual Review of Immunology. 1994. 12: 991-1045.

Ridge JP, Fuchs E, Matzinger, P. Neonatal tolerance revisited: turning on newborn T cells with dendritic cells. Science. 1996. 271: 1723-1726.

Special Interest Groups: Immunology.

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