Seminars in Investigative Medicine

Seminars in Investigative Medicine, which began in 2017, is a monthly seminar series at WMed that attracts speakers representing a veritable who’s who in the field of immunology.

The series, which is held from October to May each academic year at the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus, serves as a gathering point for the medical school’s community of investigators, as well as investigators beyond WMed. The event was developed by Dr. Thomas L. Rothstein, assistant dean for Investigative Medicine and director of the Center for Immunobiology, as a way to promote collaboration and new discoveries that help patients.

The event is open to the public and all members of the WMed community, and the speaker series serves to highlight the best and brightest in the field of investigative medicine.

Upcoming Speakers

Previous Speakers

• January 2021
  Meinrad Busslinger, PhD
  Senior Scientist and Scientific Deputy Director
  Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria
  “The role of chromatin loop extrusion in generating a diverse antibody repertoire” 
• January 2020
  Eugene Oltz, PhD
  Professor and Chair
  Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity
  The Ohio State University College of Medicine
  “Chromatin-Based Regulation of Gene Expression Programs in the Immune System” 
• December 2019
  Karen Haas, PhD
  Associate Professor
  Microbiology and Immunology
  Wake Forest School of Medicine
  “Harnessing the Protective Capacity of Innate B Cells for Anti-Tumor Responses” 
• November 2019
  Grace Chen, MD
  Associate Professor of Internal Medicine
  Division of Hematology/Oncology
  University of Michigan
  “Host-Microbial Interactions in the Development of Inflammation and Tumors in the Colon”
• May 2019
  Michael McHeyzer-Williams, PhD
  Professor
  Department of Immunology and Microbiology
  Scripps Research Institute
  “ReProgramming B Cell Memory: One Cell at a Time” 
• April 2019
  Ann Marshak-Rothstein, PhD
  Professor of Medicine
  University of Massachusetts Medical School
  “Nucleic Acid Sensors at the Interface of Autoimmunity and Autoinflammation”
• March 2019
  Lisa Borghesi, PhD
  Associate Professor
  Department of Immunology
  Scientific Director, Unified Flow Core
  University of Pittsburgh
  “B Lymphocyte Development: Mouse, Man and Computational Modeling”
• February 2019
  David Scott, PhD
  Professor and Vice Chair for Research
  Department of Medicine
  Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences
  “Engineering Specific Regulatory T cells: Fighting Fire with Police CARs”
• January 2019
  Patrick C. Wilson, PhD
  Associate Professor
  Department of Medicine-Section of Rheumatology
  University of Chicago
  “Influenza Immunity in Context”
• December 2018
  Judy Lieberman, MD, PhD
  Chair, Cellular and Molecular Medicine
  Professor of Pediatrics
  Harvard Medical School
  “Immune Pore-forming Proteins: The New Bug Exterminators.”
• October 2018
  Bonnie Blomberg, PhD
  Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
  University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
  “Contributors to Vaccine Response: Aging, Obesity, and Inflammation”
• May 2018

  Coleen McNamara, MD
  Frances Myers Ball Professor of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division
  University of Virginia
  “The Role of B Lymphocytes in Atherosclerosis”

• April 2018

  Nicole Baumgarth, DVM, PhD
  Professor of Immunology
  University of California, Davis
  “Innate-Like B Cells: The Inbetweeners – What They Do and How They Do It”

• March 2018

  Garnett Kelsoe, DSc
  James B. Duke Professor of Immunology
  Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development
  Duke University
  “New biology for the germinal center reaction” 

  David Allman, PhD
  Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  Director, Cell Separation Facility, Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute
  Associate Director, Abramson Cancer Center Flow Cytometry Core Facility
  University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
  “How Serum Antibody Titers are Maintained” 

• February 2018

  Gregg Silverman, MD
  Professor of Medicine and Pathology
  Associate Director, Division of Rheumatology
  Director, Laboratory of B-cell Immunobiology
  NYU School of Medicine
  “Lupus, Autoimmunity and the Microbiome” 

• January 2018

  Barbara Lynne Kee, PhD
  Professor of Pathology
  University of Chicago
  “Transcriptional Repression in Lymphocyte Cell Fate”

• December 2017

  Roberta Pelanda, PhD
  Professor of Immunology & Microbiology
  University of Colorado School of Medicine
  “Bridging Studies of B Cell Tolerance and Autoimmunity from Mice to Humans” 

• November 2017

  Michael Paul Cancro, PhD
  Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
  “New Subsets, New Checkpoints: Expanding Roles for Tbet+ B Cells in Health and Disease”

• October 2017

  Mark Jay Shlomchik, MD, PhD
  Endowed Professor and Chair, Department of Immunology
  University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  “How Autoimmunity Gets Started and How it Causes Damage”