Julie K. Pfeiffer, Ph.D.

Secciones

Julie K. Pfeiffer, Ph.D.
Title
Professor
Department
Department of Microbiology
Institution
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Address
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
NA6.602
City, State, ZIP
Dallas, TX 75390-9048
Phone
(214) 648-7319
Email
[email protected]
Website
http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/pfeifferlab/Index/Home.html
Research field
Virology; Virus-microbiota Interactions; Innate Immunity
Award year
2007
Pew distinction
Innovation Fund investigator

Research

Viruses and other pathogens encounter unique environments within hosts and during transmission between hosts. As a result, the Pfeiffer lab examines how viruses evolve, disseminate, and cause disease and how hosts respond to infection. Using mouse models, Pfeiffer’s team studies how host intestinal bacteria influence infection with enteric viruses such as poliovirus, reovirus, and coxsackievirus. Additionally, they examine the origins of animal innate immunity using choanoflagellates as a model system. 

As an Innovation Fund investigator, Pfeiffer’s lab is collaborating with the lab of Nicole King, Ph.D., to combine an expertise in evolutionary biology and host-microbe interactions with that of innate immunity. All organisms, from bacteria to mammals, interact with pathogens and likely have pathogen response systems. There is limited knowledge about how the immune system has evolved from bacteria to mammals. Mammals have complex innate and adaptive immune systems that sense and respond to a variety of microbial patterns, which can make them difficult to study. Together, Pfeiffer and King will utilize choanoflagellates—aquatic, unicellular organisms that lack adaptive immunity—to identify and characterize factors involved in the innate immune system. This work has the potential to further uncover mechanisms of innate immunity and tools that could bolster immune responses in mammals.

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