Vipul Shukla
Northwestern University, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Strong antibody responses after infection or vaccination are built in germinal centers. These are small, specialized zones in lymph nodes and the spleen where B cells, the immune cells that make antibodies, multiply and refine their antibodies.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Genetics
- Topics
germinal center
B cells
antibody responses
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Oct 2029
What they work on
- Define how the Arid1a-dependent cBAF complex, a DNA-packaging remodeler, controls which genes are accessible and active as germinal center B cells mature, testing whether it establishes the germinal center gene program.
- Examine how inflammatory gene programs that switch on when Arid1a is lost disrupt germinal center responses, building on findings that anti-inflammatory glucocorticoids rescue Arid1a-deficient germinal centers.
- Map the altered immune environment around Arid1a-deficient germinal centers, including recruited neutrophils and monocytes, and dissect how these cells contribute to germinal center breakdown.
More about the research
To move through each stage of this process, B cells must switch large sets of genes on and off. Part of that job falls to BAF complexes, protein machines that reposition the packaging of DNA so that genes can be read. Mutations in BAF parts called ARID1A, ARID1B and SMARCA4 each appear in about 10% of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL), a cancer that arises from germinal center B cells. This suggests BAF keeps germinal centers in balance, but how it does so is unclear.
Why it matters
High-quality antibodies are central to fighting infections. Patients with severe infections and sepsis often have uncontrolled inflammation that weakens germinal center responses. Explaining how Arid1a-cBAF keeps inflammation in check inside germinal centers could clarify why antibody responses fail in these settings. Because BAF subunits are often mutated in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the work may also inform understanding of that cancer.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Shinya Watanabe
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Biochemistry
Define the roles of brain- and heart-specific DPF1 and DPF3 in the cBAF remodeling complex by rebuilding cBAF with DPF1, DPF2, DPF3 or no DPF protein and comparing nucleosome binding, sliding and ATPase activity.
Ethel Cesarman
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Identify how key germinal center cytokines, the signaling proteins in lymph nodes where B cells mature, act on enzymes that chemically mark DNA and histones to alter the EBV genome and choose which latency program the virus uses.
Hamilton Hodges
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Biochemistry
Determine how cellular signals influence which binding partners SWI/SNF chromatin remodelers (cBAF, PBAF, GBAF) select, using rapid perturbations in living cells with epigenomic and proteomic readouts.
The school
Northwestern University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 536 research doctorates a year.
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