Research Opportunities -

Bullock Lab
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Title: Associate Professor of Pathology, Associate Director of Clinical Hematology Laboratory
Contact: Timothy Bullock, Ph.D (tb5v@virginia.edu)

Laboratory Interests:   Tumor immunotherapy.  Under the umbrella of the Human Immune Therapy Center, our laboratory seeks to gain a greater understanding of the interactions between the immune system and tumors.  We are particularly interested in how CD4+ “helper” T cells and dendritic cells (which are responsible for activating T lymphocytes) contribute to the immunological control of tumors.  Our studies are intended to help develop vaccines against tumors.

Research Projects:
1.  Analysis of the magnitude of primary, memory and recall CD8+ T cells in response to DC pulsed with MHC class I or MHC class I and class II-restricted peptides derived from a tumor antigen

2.  Analysis of CD4+ T cell response to dendritic cell immunization; the influence of DC phenotype, maturation state and immunization route

3.  Gene expression profiling of CD40L activated DC

4.  Initial development of CD70 knockout mice

What you will learn from this rotation:
1.  A general understanding of how the immune system is being utilized to eradicate tumor cells

2.  In vitro and in vivo analysis of cells associated with immune responses. Primarily: how to generate dendritic cells; how to perform immunizations of mice and subsequent flow cytometric analysis of immune responses to dendritic cell immunization

3.  Contemporary molecular and biochemical techniques for the manipulation of cells involved in immune responses