Marc K. Jenkins | |
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| Born | Minnesota, USA |
| Education | B.S. University of Minnesota 1980 Ph.D. Northwestern University 1985 Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Institutes of Health 1985-1988 |
| Employer | University of Minnesota |
| Spouse | Karen Jenkins |
Marc K. Jenkins is a Regents Professor and Director of the Center for Immunology at the University of Minnesota. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jenkins received his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota in 1980. He completed his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 1985 from Northwestern University and then conducted postdoctoral training in the Laboratory of Immunology at the National Institutes of Health from 1985 to 1988.
In 1988, Jenkins joined the Microbiology Department at the University of Minnesota where he is now a Regents Professor and Director of the UMN Center for Immunology. [1] He conducts immunology research on antigen-specific helper T cells and B cells. Along with his work at the University of Minnesota, he has also been an active member of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) where he served as president from 2013 to 2014. [2]
Jenkins's research has focused on CD4+ T cells, which are cells of the immune system that control infections and cancers. With Ronald Schwartz, Jenkins showed that CD4+ T cells require costimulatory signals in addition to engagement of the T cell antigen receptor to become fully activated and avoid entering a state of unresponsiveness called anergy. [3] [4] [5] His group at the University of Minnesota showed that antigen-specific CD4+ T cells first become activated in the central part of lymph nodes, then migrate to B cell-rich follicles and non-lymphoid organs, and documented the cellular changes that produce immune memory. [6]
His current studies seek to understand the mechanisms of CD4+ T cell activation, memory cell formation, and immune protection, with the ultimate goal of using basic immunology discoveries to make better vaccines and prevent unwanted immune responses such as transplant rejection and autoimmunity.
Jenkins has lived in Richfield, MN for the last 35 years. He worked on behalf of the Richfield Public Schools and was elected to the District 280 school board in 2004. [7] In 2020, he received the Key to the City of Richfield in part for his service to the community. [8]
The T helper cells (Th cells), also known as CD4+ cells or CD4-positive cells, are a type of T cell that play an important role in the adaptive immune system. They aid the activity of other immune cells by releasing cytokines. They are considered essential in B cell antibody class switching, breaking cross-tolerance in dendritic cells, in the activation and growth of cytotoxic T cells, and in maximizing bactericidal activity of phagocytes such as macrophages and neutrophils. CD4+ cells are mature Th cells that express the surface protein CD4. Genetic variation in regulatory elements expressed by CD4+ cells determines susceptibility to a broad class of autoimmune diseases.
In immunology, anergy is a lack of reaction by the body's defense mechanisms to foreign substances, and consists of a direct induction of peripheral lymphocyte tolerance. An individual in a state of anergy often indicates that the immune system is unable to mount a normal immune response against a specific antigen, usually a self-antigen. Lymphocytes are said to be anergic when they fail to respond to their specific antigen. Anergy is one of three processes that induce tolerance, modifying the immune system to prevent self-destruction.
Emil Raphael Unanue was a Cuban-American immunologist and Paul & Ellen Lacy Professor Emeritus at Washington University School of Medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He previously served as chair of the National Academy of Sciences Section of Microbiology and Immunology.
Paul Malone Allen is an American cellular immunologist and current Robert L. Kroc Professor of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri. Allen holds prestigious MERIT status with the National Institutes of Health.
In immunology, peripheral tolerance is the second branch of immunological tolerance, after central tolerance. It takes place in the immune periphery. Its main purpose is to ensure that self-reactive T and B cells which escaped central tolerance do not cause autoimmune disease. Peripheral tolerance prevents immune response to harmless food antigens and allergens, too.
Harald von Boehmer was a German-Swiss immunologist best known for his work on T cells.
Christopher Edward Rudd, is a Canadian-born immunologist-biochemist. He is currently Professor of Medicine at the Universite de Montreal and Director, Immunology-Oncology at the Centre de Recherche Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (CR-HMR).
C. Garrison Fathman is a Professor of Medicine and Division Chief of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also the Associate Director of the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection and Director of the Center for Clinical Immunology at Stanford University. He was Founder and first-President of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies. As Director of the CCIS, Dr. Fathman initiated a multidisciplinary approach to study and treat autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and initiated several new approaches to education and community outreach.
Frederick W. Alt is an American geneticist. He is a member of the Immunology section of the National Academy of Sciences and a Charles A. Janeway Professor of Pediatrics, and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. He is the Director of the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Boston Children's Hospital. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, since 1987.
James Patrick Allison is an American immunologist and Nobel laureate who holds the position of professor and chair of immunology and executive director of immunotherapy platform at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas.
Harvey Cantor is an American immunologist known for his studies of the development and immunological function of T lymphocytes. Cantor is currently the Baruj Benacerraf Professor of Immunology and Microbiology at the Harvard Medical School.
Akiko Iwasaki is a Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University. She is also a principal investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research interests include innate immunity, autophagy, inflammasomes, sexually transmitted infections, herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus, respiratory virus infections, influenza infection, T cell immunity, commensal bacteria, COVID-19 and Long COVID.
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Gail A. Bishop is an American professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa and director of the Center for Immunology & Immune-Based Diseases at the Carver College of Medicine.
Tania H. Watts is a Canadian Immunologist, Professor at the University of Toronto, past President of the Canadian Society for Immunology and from 2009-2019 held the Sanofi Pasteur Chair in Human Immunology at the University of Toronto. Tania Watts holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Anti-viral Immunity and was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists, class of 2022.
Kristin Ann Hogquist is an American immunologist. She holds the David M. Brown Endowed Professorship and is Associate Director of the Center for Immunology at the University of Minnesota.
Leslie Joan Berg is an American immunologist. As a professor at University of Massachusetts Medical School, she was elected the 95th president of the American Association of Immunologists for a one-year term from 2011 to 2012. Berg’s research focuses on understanding the signal transduction pathways—the succession of reactions inside the cell as it changes one kind of stimulus, or signal, into another—important for T-cell development and activation, and the generation of protective immunity to infections.
Pamela J. Fink is a professor emerita in the Department of Immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Fink was the first woman to be editor-in-chief of the Journal of Immunology, serving from 2013–2018.
| Authority control databases: Academics |
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