Alexander Rudensky

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Rudensky in 2013 Alexander Rudensky 2013 (cropped).jpg
Rudensky in 2013

Alexander Rudensky (born August 21, 1956) [1] [2] is an immunologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center known for his research on regulatory T cells and the transcription factor Foxp3. [3]

Contents

Career

Rudensky received his Candidate of Sciences degree in 1986 from the Gabrichevsky Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow, and completed his postdoctoral work at the Yale School of Medicine. [4] He is now the Chair of the Immunology Program and Director of the Ludwig Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering, as well as a professor at the Rockefeller University, Cornell University, Gerstner School of Graduate Studies, and Weill-Cornell Medical School. [5]

In a 2003 paper, Rudensky and colleagues showed that Foxp3 programs regulatory T cell development. [3] His lab continues to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying regulatory T cell activity, and the role these cells play in autoimmunity, tumor immunity, and immunity to infections. [6]

Awards

Related Research Articles

The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord. The Prize is awarded in partnership between the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Crafoord Foundation in Lund. The Academy is responsible for selecting the Crafoord Laureates. The prize is awarded in four categories: astronomy and mathematics; geosciences; biosciences, with particular emphasis on ecology; and polyarthritis, the disease from which Holger severely suffered in his last years.

The regulatory T cells (Tregs or Treg cells), formerly known as suppressor T cells, are a subpopulation of T cells that modulate the immune system, maintain tolerance to self-antigens, and prevent autoimmune disease. Treg cells are immunosuppressive and generally suppress or downregulate induction and proliferation of effector T cells. Treg cells express the biomarkers CD4, FOXP3, and CD25 and are thought to be derived from the same lineage as naïve CD4+ cells. Because effector T cells also express CD4 and CD25, Treg cells are very difficult to effectively discern from effector CD4+, making them difficult to study. Research has found that the cytokine transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) is essential for Treg cells to differentiate from naïve CD4+ cells and is important in maintaining Treg cell homeostasis.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">FOXP3</span> Immune response protein

FOXP3, also known as scurfin, is a protein involved in immune system responses. A member of the FOX protein family, FOXP3 appears to function as a master regulator of the regulatory pathway in the development and function of regulatory T cells. Regulatory T cells generally turn the immune response down. In cancer, an excess of regulatory T cell activity can prevent the immune system from destroying cancer cells. In autoimmune disease, a deficiency of regulatory T cell activity can allow other autoimmune cells to attack the body's own tissues.

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T helper 3 cells (Th3) are a subset of T lymphocytes with immunoregulary and immunosuppressive functions, that can be induced by administration of foreign oral antigen. Th3 cells act mainly through the secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokine transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β). Th3 have been described both in mice and human as CD4+FOXP3 regulatory T cells. Th3 cells were first described in research focusing on oral tolerance in the experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE) mouse model and later described as CD4+CD25FOXP3LAP+ cells, that can be induced in the gut by oral antigen through T cell receptor (TCR) signalling.

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Craig B. Thompson is an American cell biologist and a former president of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

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Dana Pe'er, Chair and Professor in Computational and Systems Biology Program at Sloan Kettering Institute is a researcher in computational systems biology. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator since 2021, she was previously a professor at Columbia Department of Biological Sciences. Pe'er's research focuses on understanding the organization, function and evolution of molecular networks, particularly how genetic variations alter the regulatory network and how these genetic variations can cause cancer.

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Marcel R.M. van den Brink is a Dutch oncologist and researcher known for his research in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for cancer patients.

Jeffrey A. Bluestone is the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Metabolism and Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, and was, for a number of years, an earlier executive vice chancellor and provost of that university. He began the UCSF affiliation in 2000, after earlier extended positions at the NCI-NIH, and at The University of Chicago. Bluestone earned his undergraduate and masters degrees in microbiology from Rutgers State University, and his doctoral degree in immunology from Cornell Graduate School of Medical Science. His current research is focused on understanding T cell activation and immune tolerance in autoimmunity and organ transplantation. In April 2016, he co-founded and served as the president and CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy,. In 2019, he co-founded and is Chief Executive Officer and President of Sonoma Biotherapeutics.

Alfred Singer is an American immunologist who works at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he is the Chief of the Experimental Immunology Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Center for Cancer Research. He is best known for his work regarding lymphocyte development, particularly the differentiation of immature CD4+8+ thymocytes into mature T cells. Singer's work is foundational in the understanding of T cells and MHC-restricted antigen recognition.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Ramsdell</span>

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Miram Merad is a French-Algerian professor in Cancer immunology and the Director of the Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz Precision Immunology Institute (PrIISM) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) in New York, NY. She is the corecipient of the 2018 William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic Immunology and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

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References

  1. "Rudensky, Alexander". Library of Congress. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  2. "JCI's Conversations with Giants in Medicine: Alexander Rudensky". Youtube. 22 August 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  3. 1 2 Fontenot, Jason D.; Gavin, Marc A.; Rudensky, Alexander Y. (1 April 2003). "Foxp3 programs the development and function of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells". Nature Immunology. 4 (4): 330–336. doi:10.1038/ni904. ISSN   1529-2908. PMID   12612578. S2CID   3343021.
  4. "MSK center". Ludwig Cancer Research. Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  5. King, Christopher. "The 2015 Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates". Thomson Reuters. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  6. "The Alexander Rudensky Lab". Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  7. "Alexander Rudensky". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  8. "Newly Elected Members, April 2015" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  9. "William B. Coley Award". Cancer Research Institute. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  10. "Polyarthritis - Crafoordprize". www.crafoordprize.se. Archived from the original on 23 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2017.