Our Science – Lazarevic Website

Vanja Lazarevic, Ph.D.

Experimental Immunology Branch Investigator Center for Cancer Research National Cancer Institute Building 10 - Magnuson CC, Room 5A31/33 Bethesda, MD 20892 Phone:   301-451-6882 Fax:   301-496-0887 E-Mail:   lazarevicv@mail.nih.gov

Biography

B.Sc., Microbiology
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Ph.D., Molecular Virology and Microbiology
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Postdoctoral Fellow, Immunology
Senior Research Associate
Laboratory of Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher
Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA

Research

Our laboratory studies the molecular events that lead to the breakdown of immunological tolerance to self-antigens. These processes are clinically manifested in the development of autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis.

The function of the immune system is to defend the host against viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic challenges. This protection is mediated through the cells of both innate and adaptive immunity. The cells of adaptive immunity (T cells and B cells) possess antigen-specific receptors of extraordinary diversity in order to protect the body from pathogens. A by-product of this system is the generation of T and B cell subsets which possess receptors that recognize host antigens ('self-antigens'). Exquisite mechanisms have evolved to suppress these autoreactive cells and prevent them from activation by self-antigens. When self-tolerance fails due to environmental or genetic factors, susceptible individuals develop autoimmune diseases which affect either specific organs or the entire body (systemic autoimmunity).

The focus of our laboratory is to understand at a fundamental level the gene products (with a special emphasis on transcription factors) responsible for generating self-tolerance. Our ultimate aim is to determine how acquired or inherited defects in these check-points culminate in autoimmune diseases.

To elucidate the nature of immunological dysregulation that leads to the development of autoimmunity, our lab is specifically focused on the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. This is a complex disease in which cells of the immune system attack the protective myelin sheath that wraps around neurons in the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. Relentless and unchecked immune system activation in the central nervous system (CNS) leads to irreversible neuronal damage and, ultimately, paralysis of affected individuals.

Areas of Investigation:
1) How the immune response to infectious agents breaks the tolerance to self-antigens in the CNS
2) The function of microRNAs in shaping the magnitude and quality of T cell responses during antigenic challenge
3) The main regulatory mechanisms that constrain inflammation in the CNS
4) The effect of an inflammatory response on remyelination and neuroregeneration.

This page was last updated on 2/20/2013.