Site Search     
Dendritic Cell Based Cancer Vaccines
Genes of Health: Signature of Health and Disease in Humans
Human Dendritic Cell Biology
Humouse: An In Vivo Model of the Human Immune System
Infectious Diseases
Understanding of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Current BIIR Grants
Key BIIR Papers


Baylor Institute for Immunology Research
3434 Live Oak St.
Dallas, Texas 75204

Tel: (214) 820-7451
Fax: (214) 820-4813
Genes of Health: Signature of Health and Disease in Humans
Investigators: Jacques Banchereau, A. Karolina Palucka, Virginia Pascual, Damien Chaussabel, Joseph Fay, Goran Klintmalm
Collaborator: Octavio Ramilo, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas

All white blood cells are immune cells that are components of either the innate immune system (granulocytes, NK cells) or the adaptive immune system (T and B lymphocytes) or both (monocytes and DCs). Blood represents both a reservoir of immune cells and a migration compartment for these cells. Thus, white blood cells are expected to include cells that have recently been exposed to environmental stimuli such as those provided, directly or indirectly, by infectious agents, allergens, tumors, transplants and autoimmune reactions.

A healthy status is under considerable influence of the immune system and alterations of the immune system result in numerous diseases such as infections and cancer in terms of hypoimmunity and allergy, autoimmunity and transplant rejection in terms of hyperimmunity. With this in mind, BIIR scientists have developed a program with a goal to analyze gene expression patterns in blood samples from patients to unravel molecular mechanisms of disease pathogenesis, and in vitro generated DC subsets and immune effectors (T cell subset) cultured with a particular DC subset. The latter one will allow us to establish molecular pathways of DC-mediated regulation of immune responses.

We have now established an extensive database. Most specifically, the analysis of gene expression patterns in blood from patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) permitted us to confirm our initial cellular immunology finding and to gain new clues to disease pathophysiology. Thus, we surmise that microarray-based biosignature analysis in blood allow: 		 
Diagnosis
Discovery of new disease markers
Disease prognosis
Therapeutic evaluation. Other programs include the analysis of blood of patients suffering from either 1) E. coli or S. aureus infections, 2) Cancer 3) Transplant patients, including patients tolerizing their liver transplant, patients rejecting their liver transplant, patients suffering from graft versus host disease following bone marrow transplantation.