You are cordially invited to the next PSF series talk by Dr. Yanping Huang from the Children Hospital of Philadelphia.
Cells are not bags of soup largely because actin skeleton plays huge roles in organizing the subcellular structures and helping cargo transporting etc during many cellular processes, facts that deserve much more attention in biological/clinical researches. Dr. Huang will introduce to us the actin biology. Most importantly, she will talk on her new finding on how T-cell actin responses are regulated by T-cell signaling pathway through the tyrosine kinase c-Abl.
Brief introduction:
Virtually every aspect of T lymphocyte function, including differentiation, migration and effector function depends on regulated reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. Dysregulation of these events is associated with immunodeficiency and autoimmunity, as well as leukemia and lymphoma. As in other cell types, T cell actin responses are controlled by the coordinated action of multiple actin regulatory proteins, which function downstream of a complex network of kinases and other signaling molecules. The Abl nonreceptor tyrosine kinases, which include c-Abl and Abl-related gene (Arg), are well known for their relationships with leukemia. c-Abl and Arg play an important role in regulating actin responses in other cell types, but their role in T cells are poorly understood. We have found that c-Abl is a key player in the T cell signaling cascade, leading to actin reorganization during T cell activation (Blood. 2008, 112 (1): 111-9). Our current studies focus on identifying Abl family kinase substrates in T cells, and determining how Abl family kinases and their substrates cooperate to regulate T cell actin remodeling.
Please join the talk on Friday (April 1) from 4:30-6:30pm at the Clinical Research Building room 302. Refreshment will be served.
