Matthew Pipkin Ph.D.
- Mailing Address:
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Location C243
130 SCRIPPS WAY BLDG, 2C2
JUPITER FL 33458
The overall focus of the Pipkin lab is to elucidate how chromatin structure and transcription controls the gene expression programs that establish and maintain the differentiated states of T cells. The lab specifically studies how naïve CD8 T cells differentiate into effector and memory cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). CTL are killer lymphocytes that hold outstanding promise for controlling viral infections and cancer therapeutically, as they can be employed in adoptive immunotherapy and are the target of successful vaccination. The Pipkin lab has developed novel approaches to map the fundamental repeating structures of chromatin (nucleosomes) at unprecedented resolution, novel reporter genes to track cells in vivo that induce expression of Prf1, an essential gene that is required for the anti-tumor killing activity of CTL, and the only systems to conduct genome-scale pooled RNAi screens in T cells, in vivo, during the course of actual viral infections. Using these tools and approaches, the Pipkin lab is clarifying how transcription factors govern the specific organization of nucleosomes that enforces CTL differentiation, identifying the chromatin regulatory factors that maintain the differentiated state epigenetically, and demonstrating how these processes mediate durable immunity.
- 2022 The Journal of Immunology
- 2022 Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology
- 2021 Journal of Experimental Medicine
- 2021 Nature
- 2021 Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950)
- 2021 Immunological Reviews
- 2020 Nature immunology
- 2020 The Journal of experimental medicine
- 2020 Journal of virology
- 2020 Cancer research
- 2019 F1000Research
- 2018 Immunity
- 2017 Scientific reports
- 2017 Nature immunology
- 2017 Nature immunology
- 2017 Nature
- 2015 Trends in immunology
- 2015 Immunity
- 2014 Immunity
- 2013 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2011 EMBO reports
- 2010 Immunological reviews
- 2009 The Journal of experimental medicine
- 2009 Cell
- 2007 Immunity
- 2006 Nucleic acids research
- 2003 Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950)
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2005
Ph.D. in Microbiology and ImmunologyUniversity of Miami, School of Medicine
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1998
Bachelor's of Science in Microbiology and ImmunologyUniversity of Miami
Laura Solt Ph.D.
- Mailing Address:
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Location C227
130 SCRIPPS WAY BLDG 3C1
JUPITER FL 33458
Laura A. Solt, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Florida in Jupiter, Florida. She received her B.A. from Boston College and her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania. After completing her postdoctoral research at Scripps, she started her independent laboratory at Scripps Florida in 2013. Dr. Solt’s research is focused on understanding the biological roles of nuclear receptors in the immune system, with a specific focus on Th17 cells, and how their expression, function, and activity affects disease. Her lab uses a combination of molecular biology, genetic, and chemical biology approaches coupled with mouse models of autoimmunity and chronic inflammation to study the RORs, REV-ERBs, and NR2F6 either individually and/or cross-talk between the receptors. As ligand-regulated transcription factors, nuclear receptors function as excellent targets for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Therefore, we also work in close collaboration with medicinal chemists to design and develop small molecule ligands to these receptors to further probe their functions in vitro, in vivo, and to evaluate their therapeutic potential. Using these approaches, we described a negative regulatory role for the nuclear receptor REV-ERBa in Th17 cell development and autoimmunity. We also described the design and synthesis of newer, more potent synthetic REV-ERB modulators that target Th17 cells in vivo. Recently, we have extended our studies to better understand how heme, the REV-ERBs endogenous ligand, regulates REV-ERB activity in Th17 cells. Finally, we also described the design and synthesis of synthetic RORa modulators. We published a role for RORa in Th17 cells and the characterization of RORa-selective small molecules to target Th17 cells and treat Th17-mediated autoimmunity. Targeting the REV-ERBs or RORa demonstrate an alternative approach to the current design of RORgt modulators – of which many have entered clinical trials and failed for numerous reasons. Insight into the transcriptional regulation of nuclear receptors and their ligand(s) function is essential to comprehend the signaling pathways that govern Th17 cell homeostasis vs. pathogenicity as well as the rational design of therapeutics for specific disease indications.
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Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards2010-2013 · National Institutes of Health
The underlying theme of the research performed in the Solt laboratory is to understand the biologically relevant roles of nuclear receptors, a superfamily of ligand regulated transcription factors, in the immune system. Our lab uses a combination of molecular biology, genetic, and chemical biology approaches coupled with mouse models of autoimmunity and chronic inflammation to study how different nuclear receptors’ expression, function, and activity affects disease. As ligand-regulated transcription factors, nuclear receptors are excellent therapeutic targets for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Therefore, we also work in collaboration with medicinal chemists to develop small molecule ligands to these receptors to further probe their function in vitro and in vivo. Each receptor is unique and can have ligand- and/or tissue-specific effects. Thus, we aim to gain a better understanding of nuclear receptor activity in tissue and disease-specific contexts to determine their therapeutic potential and for more rational drug design.
- Autoimmune Disease
- Cancer Immunotherapy
- Immunometabolism
- Mucosal immunology
- Neuroimmunology
- 2022 Immunometabolism
- 2022 Immunometabolism
- 2022 SLAS discovery : advancing life sciences R & D
- 2022 Redox biology
- 2021 Nature
- 2021 Nature Communications
- 2021 Science advances
- 2021 Immunometabolism
- 2020 Nature communications
- 2020 Biochemical and biophysical research communications
- 2019 Nature
- 2019 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2019 Science immunology
- 2019 Medicinal chemistry (Shariqah (United Arab Emirates))
- 2018 PLoS biology
- 2018 Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters
- 2018 Cell reports
- 2018 Biochemical pharmacology
- 2018 PLOS ONE
- 2017 FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
- 2016 PloS one
- 2016 ACS chemical biology
- 2016 European journal of immunology
- 2016 PloS one
- 2016 PloS one
- 2015 Cancer cell
- 2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2015 Biochemical and biophysical research communications
- 2015 Diabetes management (London, England)
- 2015 Endocrinology
- 2014 Nature communications
- 2014 The Journal of biological chemistry
- 2013 ACS chemical biology
- 2013 Pharmacological reviews
- 2013 Nature medicine
- 2012 Biochemistry
- 2012 Nature
- 2012 PloS one
- 2012 PloS one
- 2012 ACS chemical biology
- 2012 Trends in endocrinology and metabolism: TEM
- 2012 ACS chemical biology
- 2011 The Journal of biological chemistry
- 2011 ACS chemical biology
- 2011 Nature
- 2011 Future medicinal chemistry
- 2010 Current opinion in lipidology
- 2010 The Journal of biological chemistry
- 2010 Endocrinology
- 2010 The Journal of biological chemistry
- 2010 Molecular pharmacology
- 2007 The Journal of biological chemistry
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2009-2013
Postdoctoral FellowThe Scripps Research Institute – Florida
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2008
Ph.D. in ImmunologyUniversity of Pennsylvania
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1998
Bachelor's of Science in PsychologyBoston College
Susana Valente Ph.D.
- Mailing Address:
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Location C329
130 SCRIPPS WAY BLDG 3C1
Jupiter FL 33458
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NIAID MERIT Award.2022 · Host factors regulating HIV latency and reactivation.
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Co-leader of HOPE (HIV Obstruction by Programmed Epigenetics) – Martin Delaney Collaboratory for HIV Cure (UM1)2021-current · NIH
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Founder2019-Current · Thimble Therapeutics
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Editorial Board2018-Current · Retrovirology
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Editorial Board2018-Current · Viruses
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Permanent member NIH- ADDT and HVCD study sections2014-2020 · NIH-NIAID
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Early Career Reviewer (ECR) program2012-2013 · NIH-NIAID
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Landenberger Foundation Award for early career investigators2010-2012 · Landenberger Foundation
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Research Scholar Development Award (K22)2009-2011 · NIAID
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Awarded2008 · NIAID Career Transition Award (K22)
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Awarded2007-2008 · Portuguese Ministry of Education Fellowship
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Awarded2005-2007 · American Foundation AIDS Research (amfAR) Fellowship
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Awarded1998-2002 · Portuguese Ministry of Education Scholarship
According to the latest statistics published by the UNAIDS/WHO in 2021, 38.4 million people were living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and 40.1 million have died as a result of HIV. Although antiretroviral drugs have had a dramatically beneficial impact on HIV-infected individuals who have access to treatment, they have had a negligible impact on the global epidemic. Therapies for retroviral infections now used in clinical practice have limitations in that they often only shorten the duration of disease symptoms but fail to completely eradicate the virus with viral replication and disease recurring after discontinuation of the drug therapy. Additionally, the emergence of HIV variants with drug-resistance is an ongoing clinical problem. Clearly having a larger repertoire of therapeutic agents would be beneficial for combating the HIV epidemic.
Retroviruses, due to their limited genome size and content, require the assistance of multiple host cellular proteins at each step in their elaborate replication cycle. Host cells, in response, have evolved many mechanisms for inhibiting viral replication. We have taken a general approach to identify the molecular interactions occurring within a cell that are critical for viral replication, or genes that have evolved in mammalian cells to regulate viral replication. The discovery of cellular factors involved in retroviral replication and our increased knowledge of their mode of action may leverage novel antiviral approaches in clinical settings as one could block the modified use without affecting cell viability.
- 2022 Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)
- 2022 SLAS discovery : advancing life sciences R & D
- 2021 mBio
- 2021 Nature Medicine
- 2021 The Journal of infectious diseases
- 2021 bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
- 2021 Cell reports
- 2020 Viruses
- 2020 International journal of pharmaceutics
- 2020 Viruses
- 2020 Colloids and surfaces. B, Biointerfaces
- 2020 Journal of virology
- 2019 mBio
- 2019 Journal of virology
- 2019 mBio
- 2019 Epigenetics & chromatin
- 2019 FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
- 2017 Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)
- 2017 Cell reports
- 2017 Current pharmaceutical design
- 2016 Expert review of anti-infective therapy
- 2016 Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy
- 2016 Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)
- 2015 Current HIV research
- 2015 Current topics in microbiology and immunology
- 2015 Frontiers in microbiology
- 2015 mBio
- 2014 Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE
- 2012 Biology
- 2012 Cell host & microbe
- 2009 Molecular cell
- 2009 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2009 Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)
- 2007 The EMBO journal
- 2006 Molecular cell
- 2002 FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
- 2001 Journal of virology
- 1999 The Journal of general virology
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2009
Postodoctoral fellowColumbia University, NYC
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2002
Ph.D. Microbiology-VirologyUniversity of Paris Diderot (Paris VII)
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1998
Master's of Science in BiotechnologyDe Montfort University
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1997
Master's of Science in Maîtrise BiochemistryUniversity of Paris Diderot (Paris VII)
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1996
Bachelor's of Science in Applied Chemistry and BiotechnologyNew University of Lisbon
Mauricio Martins Ph.D.
- Mailing Address:
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Location C221
130 SCRIPPS WAY BLDG, 2B2
JUPITER FL 33458
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Vaccine’s Young Investigator2016 · —
I am interested in developing practical immune interventions against globally relevant human pathogens. HIV is the current topic of my research. My group is using rhesus macaque models of HIV/AIDS to develop active and passive immunization strategies for preventing and treating HIV infection.
- 2023 Journal of Virus Eradication
- 2021 Journal of Virology
- 2021 Science Translational Medicine
- 2020 Journal of Virology
- 2020 Journal of Virology
- 2019 Journal of Virology
- 2019 PLOS Pathogens
- 2018 Journal of Virology
- 2018 PLOS Pathogens
- 2017 Science Translational Medicine
- 2017 PLOS Pathogens
Corinne Lasmézas Ph.D.
- Mailing Address:
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Location B213
130 SCRIPPS WAY BLDG, 2B2
JUPITER FL 33458
Neurodegenerative diseases
Our laboratory focuses on the study of neurodegenerative diseases, especially those linked to protein misfolding (protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases, or PMNDs). These diseases comprise Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, prion diseases, fronto-temporal dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. None of them are curable. They are all due to host proteins loosing their natural, functional conformation and adopting a new shape that renders them neurotoxic and prone to aggregation.
Prion diseases constitute the prototypic PMND. These rapidly fatal neurodegenerative diseases affect humans and animals and are caused by infectious aggregates of the prion protein PrP, called prions. In humans, prions cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In animals, the recent epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United Kingdom has caused major turmoil throughout Europe, and later, in other countries such as Japan, Canada and the United States, because the bovine prion disease is transmissible to humans causing variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The transmissibility of the latter by blood transfusion created a novel public health issue.
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases affect 5.8 and 1 Million people in the USA, respectively. Their incidence has steadily increased with an aging population, having a major impact on public health, society and the economy. Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death in developed countries. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) is an orphan disease causing a progressive muscle weakness and paralysis, affecting an estimated 30,000 people in the USA.
In recent years, it has been discovered that aggregates of amyloidogenic proteins such as Ab, tau, a-synuclein or SOD-1 involved in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, respectively, spread from cell to cell in culture and in the living organism similarly to PrP aggregates, showing “prion-like” behavior. There are other features common to these toxic proteins and the way they injure neurons (e.g. toxicity of low molecular weight aggregates, impairment of protein degradation mechanisms such as autophagy, mitochondrial distress).
Our aim is the development of novel, disease-modifying therapeutic approaches for protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases. We think that this aim will be best achieved by intervention strategies based on targeting toxic protein aggregates, and blocking the neurodegenerative process to achieve neuroprotection. We are pursuing these goals by studying the underlying biology, defining therapeutic targets, identifying active molecules by high-throughput screening and developing lead compounds. The latter two tasks are performed in collaboration with our lead identification and chemist colleagues on campus.
- 2019 Neurobiology of disease
- 2018 Handbook of clinical neurology
- 2018 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2017 Food safety (Tokyo, Japan)
- 2015 Brain : a journal of neurology
- 2015 The EMBO journal
- 2013 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2012 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2012 Expert review of proteomics
- 2012 Journal of virology
- 2009 Neuroscience
- 2009 PloS one
- 2008 PloS one
- 2007 Prion
- 2007 PLoS pathogens
- 2006 Neuroreport
- 2006 The Lancet. Neurology
- 2005 Journal of virology
- 2005 Lancet (London, England)
- 2004 Transgenic research
- 2004 Lancet (London, England)
- 2004 Lancet (London, England)
- 2003 The Journal of general virology
- 2003 Biological chemistry
- 2003 Journal of virology
- 2003 British medical bulletin
- 2003 EMBO reports
- 2003 Revue scientifique et technique (International Office of Epizootics)
- 2001 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2001 Veterinary journal (London, England : 1997)
- 2001 The EMBO journal
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2001
The 37-kDa/67-kDa laminin receptor acts as the cell-surface receptor for the cellular prion protein.The EMBO journal
- 2000 Neurobiology of disease
- 2000 The Journal of pathology
- 1999 Neuroreport
- 1999 Biochemical and biophysical research communications
- 1999 Transfusion clinique et biologique : journal de la Societe francaise de transfusion sanguine
- 1999 Journal of neuroscience research
- 1998 Cell and tissue research
- 1998 The Journal of biological chemistry
- 1997 Science (New York, N.Y.)
- 1997 Nature medicine
- 1997 Journal of virology
- 1997 Lancet (London, England)
- 1996 Bulletin de l'Academie nationale de medecine
- 1996 Nature
- 1996 Research in virology
- 1996 Journal of virology
- 1996 The Journal of general virology
- 1994 The Journal of general virology
- 1994 Lancet (London, England)
- 1993 Biochemical and biophysical research communications
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1995
Ph.D. in NeurosciencesPierre and Marie Curie University
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1993
Doctor of Veterinary MedicineUniversity of Toulouse, Toulouse National Veterinary School
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1992
Master's of Science in NeurosciencesPierre and Marie Curie University
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1990
Diploma in Aeronautic and Space MedicineUniversity of Toulouse, University of Medicine