524 Scaife Hall

412-648-8957

http://www.immun.pitt.edu/graduate/

gradstudies@medschool.pitt.edu

The PhD Program in Immunology is one of the six degree-granting programs offered to students entering the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program in the School of Medicine. The immunology program faculty includes 55 active members from the basic and clinical science departments of the School of Medicine, and program members' research efforts focus on cancer immunology, organ transplantation, autoimmunity, immunology of infectious disease, immunology of lung diseases, and basic immunologic mechanisms. Cancer immunology is on the leading edge of research in tumor antigen discovery, antigen presentation with special emphases on dendritic cells, lymphocyte specificity and activation, and in vivo vaccination strategies to develop safe and effective treatments. Faculty members who are studying the immunology of infectious disease concentrate on immune evasion strategies utilized by pathogens as well as developing new ways to stimulate effective immune responses against invading organisms. Research in transplantation immunology concentrates on altering the immune response to allow the acceptance of foreign organ and tissue transplants as well as on the use of new immunomodulatory agents to promote transplant acceptance without endangering patients' abilities to resist infections. Diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and type-1 diabetes occur when immune responses are directed at the body's own tissues. Investigation in this area involves detailed analysis of the molecular mechanisms underlying the autoimmune response and on the development of novel therapeutic and preventive measures for these often fatal diseases. Immunology of lung diseases studies both basic mechanisms and dendritic cell maturation and their influence on T-cell differentiation and the relevance of these interactions in disease second intolerance. Some foci of basic immunologic mechanisms include cell and organ development and homeostasis, cellular activation and inactivation signaling cascades, and the use of gene therapy to modulate immune responses.