Penn IMIG

Description of Penn IMIG Expertise

Research:

Natural killer (NK) lymphocytes are critical to host defense both for surveillance of tumor cells as well as for control of viral infections. As members of the innate immune system, they do not undergo genetic recombination to attain specificity.  The foundations of NK cell activities and regulation lie at the interface between NK cells and cells with which they interact. Once a favorable balance between the ligation of activating and inhibiting receptors has been achieved, NK cells kill target cells by extruding secretory lysosomes. The dynamic structure at the NK/target cell interface is known as the NK cell immunologic synapse (NKIS).

The focus of work in the Orange laboratory is to better understand the formation, function and regulation of the NKIS.  Using cells from patients with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, a human disease featuring impaired cytoskeletal function, we have shown that the activating NKIS is actin-dependent. This is in contrast to the inhibitory NKIS, which is actin-independent. We have also identified sequential steps required for the creation of the activating NKIS and have demonstrated that actin reorganization precedes and is required for microtubule function at the synapse. Our most recent work has focused upon cytoskeletal events required for polarization of the microtubule organizing center and lytic granules to the NKIS, as well as the final translocation of lytic granules to the synaptic membrane.

Lab expertise and resources:

• Quantitative confocal microscopy


• Colocalization studies


• Nuclear localization studies


• Dynamic object tracking


• Total internal reflection fluorescence microsopy


• Imaging under flow stress

IMIG Collaborations:

• Orange and Reiner: evaluation and measurement of asymmetry in immune cells

Lab members:

• Pinaki Banerjee – Research Associate
  
  
  
  • Quantitative imaging, fixed cell confocal microscopy
  
  
  • pinaki@email.chop.edu
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Sumita Roy Ghanta – Research Associate
  
  
  
  • Sumita.Roy-Ghanta@uphs.upenn.edu
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Jennifer Grier– Graduate student
  
  
  
  • Quantitative imaging, fixed cell confocal microscopy
  
  
  • grierjt@mail.med.upenn.edu
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Emily Mace - Post-doctoral Fellow
  
  


• Saumya Maru – Undergraduate
  
  
  
  • saumya.maru@gmail.com
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Ashley Mentlik – Graduate student
  
  
  
  • Quantitative imaging, live cell confocal microscopy
  
  
  • amentlik@mail.med.upenn.edu
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Linda Monaco-Shawver – Research Technician
  
  
  
  • Retroviral transduction
  
  
  • shawver@email.chop.edu
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Rahul Pandey – Post-doctoral Fellow
  
  
  
  • pandeyr@email.chop.edu
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Greg Rak – Graduate student
  
  
  
  • Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy
  
  
  • grak@vet.upenn.edu
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Keri Sanborn – Graduate student
  
  
  
  • Quantitative imaging, live cell confocal microscopy, flow chamber microscopy experiments
  
  
  • ksanborn@gmail.com