Lecture Title: Genetic Dissection of the TLR Paradox in Lupus: Implications for endosomal TLR function
Dr. Shlomchik received his medical and doctoral degrees in 1989 from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1993 he joined the faculty at Yale University, becoming a full professor in 2004. In July 2013 he moved to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he was Department Chair for 9 years and where he is currently Distinguished Professor and UPMC Endowed Chair for Immunology. Dr. Shlomchik won the inaugural Lupus Insight Prize and has delivered the Willison Lecture (University of Michigan), the Joy Faith Knapp Lecture (University of Chicago), the Albert Hasinger Lecture (Berlin, Germany), the American Association of Immunology Distinguished Lecture, and the Charles A. Janeway Memorial Lecture (Yale). He is also the recipient of an NIH MERIT award. He has authored more than 220 original articles and chapters.
Dr. Shlomchik’s lab is interested in long-lived B cell immunity and origins and the immunopathogenesis of systemic autoimmune diseases. He has elucidated the key roles of B cells, Toll-like receptors, and dendritic cells in these diseases; a current focus is understanding the role of T cells, and inherent tissue resistance to them, in systemic autoimmunity. In the area of long-lived B cell immunity and has helped elucidate the function of memory B cells and the germinal center, along with control of extrafollicular responses. In 2017 he co-founded BlueSphere Bio, which aims to deliver personalized T cell immunotherapy for leukemia and solid tumors, based on the patented TCXpress TCR cloning and functionality testing platform he invented.
