NIH VideoCasting

Immunology Interest Group

Laurel Lenz has made major contributions to our understanding of the innate and adaptive immune response to the intracellular bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. As a Ph.D. student with Mike Bevan at the University of Washington Laurel performed pioneering work on the requirements for CD8+ antigen presentation by Listeria identifying a role for the non-classical restriction element H-2-M3. Later as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dan Portnoy at UC Berkeley he delved into the cell biology of the Listeria-macrophage interaction discovering a new secretory element SecA2 that influences both virulence and the induction of T cell immunity. In 2004 Laurel was recruited as a junior faculty member to the Integrated Department of Immunology at the National Jewish Health and University of Colorado School of Medicine. In 2011 he switched his primary location and affiliation to the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where he was promoted to Full Professor this year. In Denver, Laurel has built a broad based program investigating the regulation of macrophage, NK cell and T cell function in Listeria infection. Perhaps his most exciting contribution has been the discovery (published in J. Exp. Med.) that Type-I IFN promotes the growth of this pathogen by down-regulating IFN-gamma receptor function in infected macrophages. This fascinating antagonistic crosstalk between type I and II interferons and its implications for host-directed therapy of bacterial infections is the topic of Laurel’s IIG lecture. Laurel Lenz is a rare microbial immunologist who is equally skilled and insightful working on either side of the host-pathogen encounter. Don’t miss his exciting lecture!