Faculty

Yvonne J. Paterson, Ph.D.

faculty photo
Emeritus Professor of Microbiology
Department: Microbiology
Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information
319A Johnson Pavilion
3610 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6076
Office: 215-898-3461
Education:
B.Sc. (Biochemistry)
University of Manchester, 1963.
M.Sc. (Biochemistry)
University of Manchester, 1966.
B.A. (Mathematics /Philosophy)
Australian National University, 1969.
Ph.D. (Biochemistry, Thesis supervisor: Dr. S. J. Leach)
Melbourne University, 1979.
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Description of Research Expertise

Research Interests
Rational approaches to immune intervention in neoplastic and infectious disease.

Key words: Immune regulation, antigen design, vaccine development, cancer immunotherapy, HIV, HPV.

Description of Research
The research performed in the Paterson laboratory was dedicated to harnessing the immune system to provide cures for, or protection against, neoplastic and infectious disease. There have been enormous advances made in the last few years in our understanding of the molecular and cellular machinery that renders proteins immunogenic. In our laboratory, we applied this knowledge to the development of strategies to enhance the immune response in the design of more effective vaccines against viral diseases, such as HIV, and against tumor cells. To do this we used a facultative intracellular bacterium, Listeria monocytogenes, which has the unusual ability to live and grow in the cytoplasm of the cell. Our laboratory was the first to show that this bacterium could be used to target antigens to the MHC class I pathway for antigen processing with the induction of cytotoxic T cells and has pioneered the application of this organism in vaccine development over the past 15 years. We have shown that recombinant forms of this organism which have been transformed to express viral antigens from influenza, HIV and SIV are excellent vectors for inducing cell mediated immune responses both parenterally and at mucosal surfaces. We have also applied this technology in the development of cancer vaccines that result in the induction of potent cell mediated immunity that can eliminate established macroscopic tumors even in the face of profound immune tolerance to the tumor-associated antigen. In other studies, we have discovered that fusing an antigen to some bacterial proteins enhances its immunogenicity. This finding opens up novel, and perhaps safer, avenues to cancer immunotherapy. Cancers to which we have directed our various technologies currently include cervical cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, melanoma and lymphoma.

Selected Publications

Mason, NJ, Gnanandarajah, JS, Engiles, JB, Gray, F, Laughlin, D, Guarnier-Hausser, A, Wallecha, A, Huebner, M and Y. Paterson: Immunotherapy with a HER2 targeted Listeria induces HER2-specific immunity and demonstrates potential therapeutic effects in a phase I trial in canine osteosarcoma Clinical Cancer Research 2016.

Bui C.T., Shollenberger L.M., Paterson Y, Harn DA: Schistosoma mansoni Soluble Egg Antigens Enhance T cell responses to a newly identified HIV-1 Gag H-2b epitope. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. 22: 1293-1299, 2015.

Bui CT, Shollenberger LM, Paterson Y, Harn DA : Schistosoma mansoni Soluble Egg Antigens Enhance Listeria monocytogenes Vector HIV-1 Vaccine Induction of Cytotoxic T Cells. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. 9: 1232-1239, 2014.

Shollenberger LM, Bui CT, Paterson Y, Allen K, Harn D : Successful vaccination of immune suppressed recipients using Listeria vector HIV-1 vaccines in helminth infected mice. Vaccine 31: 2050-2056, 2013.

Guirnalda, P.D., Wood, L.M., Goenka, R., Crespo, J., and Y. Paterson: IFN-γ induced intratumoral expression of CXCL9 alters the local distribution of T cells following immunotherapy with Listeria monocytogenes. Oncoimmunology 2: e25752, 2013.

Shollenberger LM, Bui CT, Paterson Y, Nyhoff L, Harn DA: HIV-1 vaccine-specific responses induced by Listeria vector vaccines are maintained in mice subsequently infected with a model helminth parasite, Schistosoma mansoni. Vaccine 31: 5651-5658, 2013.

Wallecha, A. Wood, L.M., Pan, Z.-K., Maciag, P.C., Shahabi, V., and Y. Paterson : Listeria-derived Listeriolysin O has PAMP-like properties independent of its hemolytic ability. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. 20: 77-84, 2013.

Guirnalda P.D. and Y. Paterson: Vaccination with immunotherapeutic Listeria monocytogenes induces IL-17+ γδ T cells in a murine model for HPV associated cancer. Oncoimmunology 1: 822-828, 2012.

Wood, L.M., Pan, Z.-K., Guirnalda, Seavey, M.M., Muthukumaren, G. and Y. Paterson: The ubiquitin-like protein, ISG-15, is a novel tumor-associated antigen for cancer immunotherapy. Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 61: 689-700, 2012.

Wood, L.M., Pan, Z.-K., Guirnalda, P., Tsai, P., Seavey, M.M., and Y. Paterson: Targeting Tumor Vasculature with Novel Listeria-based Vaccines Directed against CD105 Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 60: 931-942, 2011.

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Last updated: 08/17/2016
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