Bhandoola/Allman

Project Title

The niche for long-lived plasma cells.

NIH Mentor

Avinash Bhandoola

Penn Mentor

David Allman

Project Details

In collaboration with David Allman’s group at Penn, we have worked on signals provided by the bone marrow niche to long-lived plasma cells. We have focused on ion channels that are expressed by plasma cells and may play a role in plasma cell longevity and function. Ongoing projects include assessing whether mice engineered to lack such ion channels have defects in plasma cell generation and function; and understanding how signaling downstream of ion channels is interpreted by plasma cells. Experimental approaches including single-cell RNA-sequencing to establish cell populations altered in gene-targeted mice, and immune assessments to determine the effects of genetic manipulations on antibody production, pathogen clearance, and autoimmunity. We further seek to determine whether these molecules may be expressed by myeloma cells, and whether they can be targeted to treat multiple myeloma.