Jonathan Linehan

E-mail: lineh004@umn.edu

Year entered: 2007

Thesis Advisor: Marc Jenkins

Degree received:
B.S., Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, 2001

Honors and Awards:

• MICaB Student Travel Award Spring 2009

Thesis Research:

Peptide:MHCII tetramers are reagents that can be used to track endogenous polyclonal CD4+ T cells of a known specificity. We are utilizing an MHC class II I-Ab tetramer that is complexed with the antigenic peptide 2W1S to monitor endogenous 2W1S-specific CD4+ T cell memory responses in C57BL/6 mice. We are utilizing Streptococcus pyogenes (SP) engineered to express 2W1S, which has been shown to induce T helper 17 differentiation (Th17) of CD4+ T helper cells. Our goal is to address in vivo how Th17 differentiation is imprinted and determine the extent of lineage plasticity in fully differentiated memory CD4+ T cells after infection with SP. Important questions that may be answered with this system are: 1) What memory is formed from infection with SP and 2) What is the function, phenotype, plasticity, trafficking, and protective capacity of the 2W1S memory population formed after infection with SP. At present, we have determined that a stable 2W1S-specific memory population is formed, with a heterogeneous phenotype.