Lectures and seminars Welcome to two talks by Prof. Bing Su and Dr. Leng Siew Yeap, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

Speaker

Prof. Bing Su, Shanghai Institute of Immunology Department of Immunology and Microbiology Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine

Title

“Sin1-mTOR signaling mediated regulation of immune cell metabolism and growth"

The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is an evolutionarily conserved Ser/Thr protein kinase with essential cellular function via processing various extracellular and intracellular inputs. Two distinct multi-protein mTOR complexes (mTORC), mTORC1 and mTORC2, have been identified and well characterized in eukaryotic cells from yeast to human. Prof. Su has been studying Sty1/Spc1-interacting protein (Sin)1, an evolutionarily conserved adaptor protein and an essential component of mTORC2, for its regulation and function in immune cell growth, di^erentiation, metabolism, and cancer. He will present both the key findings and unpublished new data on Sin1-mTOR2 in immune regulation and diseases

Speaker

Dr. Leng Siew Yeap, Senior Principal Investigator Shanghai Institute of Immunology Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

Title

“Mechanisms of Antibody Diversification and Related Diseases” 

The B cell receptor (BCR), or antibody, is an important molecule in humoral immunity that provides defence against invading pathogens. The BCR is composed of two identical immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) and light (IgL) chains. When B cells encounter foreign antigens in the periphery, a process called somatic hypermutation (SHM) is initiated to introduce point mutations in the variable region of the IgH and IgL genes that increase the binding a^inity of the BCR to the antigen. Although much is known about the SHM process, there are still many open questions that remain unanswered. For example, what are the mechanisms that generate rare insertions and deletions in the variable region exon that are important for broadly neutralizing antibody function, and why mutations are intrinsically focused on the three non-consecutive complementarity determining regions (CDRs)? Dr. Yeap will discuss recent advances in addressing these questions from a cis- and trans-factors perspective, with implications for generating the next-generation of humanized animal models for rare antibody discovery

Host

Prof. Qiang Pan-Hammarström, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, KI