Ute Lehmann

E-mail: lehma112@umn.edu

Thesis Advisor: Dale Gregerson

Year entered: 2005

Degrees received:
B.S., Biology and Chemistry, St. Mary's College of California, Moraga, CA 2003

Honors and Awards:

• NEI/NIH Training Grant for Visual Neuosciences 2006-2010
• ARVO Foundation for Eye Research/Retina Research Foundation/Joseph M. and Eula C. Lawrence Travel Scholarship 2009

Thesis research:
Uveitis, modeled in our laboratory by EAU, is a major cause of visual handicap in the world and has been estimated to account for up to 10% of the cases of legal blindness. EAU is an experimental T cell-mediated autoimmune disease that targets the neural retina. Since antigen presentation is a prerequisite to T cell immune responses, it is important to understand antigen presentation in the retina. Antigen presenting cells (APCs) in the retina have not been identified or characterized. We propose that the antigen presentation that is required to initiate CD4 T cell-mediated immune responses in the retina is dependent on antigen presenting cells recruited from the circulation, rather than local cells. To address this hypothesis, auto-reactive CD4 T cells specific for a retinal antigen will be inoculated into mice that either lack or possess: 1.denritic cells; or 2. MHC class II on subsets of immune cells in the retina. The ability of circulating antigen presenting cells, or their precursors, to replace these deficiencies in antigen presentation will be tested.

Publications:

• Gregerson D.S., N.D. Heuss, U. Lehmann, and S.W. McPherson, 2009. Peripheral induction of regulatory T cells specific for a retinal antigen. (accepted in JI)

• Gregerson D.S., N.D. Heuss, U. Lehmann, and S.W. McPherson. 2008. Evidence for extrathymic generation of regulatory T cells specific for a retinal antigen. Ophthalmic Res., 40(3-4):154-9.

• Abedin M.J., D. Wang, M. McDonnell, U. Lehmann, and A. Kelekar. 2007. Autophagy Delays Apoptotic Death in Breast Cancer Cells following DNA Damage. Cell Death and Differ. 14(3):500-10.

• Adhikari N., N. Charles, U. Lehmann, and J. Hall. 2006. Transcription Factor and Kinase Mediated Signaling in Atherosclerosis and Vascular Injury. Curr Atheroscler Rep., 8(3):252 -60.