The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Jeffrey V. Ravetch, M.D., Ph.D., Theresa and Eugene M. Lang Professor and head, Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology, The Rockefeller University

Speaker bio(s)

Dr. Ravetch is a leading expert in antibody-mediated effector mechanisms and immune regulation, and contributed to the discovery of the key mechanisms by which Fc receptors operate. The Ravetch laboratory analyzes systemic autoimmunity in mouse models of certain diseases by investigating the genesis and fate of the pathological antigen-antibody complexes that form and trigger tissue damage. They simplify this complex problem by examining the mechanisms through which immune complexes influence both the afferent and efferent immune responses by interacting with a family of low-affinity surface receptors, the Fc receptors. These receptors are expressed as pairs of activation and inhibitory molecules, providing a mechanism for establishing thresholds for cellular triggering and for terminating the activation response. Disruptions of these pathways have revealed the central role these receptors play in appropriate immune responses. Work by Dr. Ravetch led to the cloning and mapping of the first malarial parasite chromosome and more recently to the cloning of the first Fc receptor genes. He discovered how immunoglobulin receptors mediate antibody-triggered inflammation and determined the mechanism by which intravenous immunoglobulin causes immunosuppression. He also played a key role in establishing FcR pathways as an essential part of the immune response and in describing the mechanisms of antibody-mediated effector responses.

Dr. Ravetch graduated from Yale University in 1973 and received his Ph.D. in 1978 from The Rockefeller University, where he studied under Norton Zinder and Peter Model. He received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1979 and completed his postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health with Philip Leder. In 1982 Dr. Ravetch joined the faculty of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and in 1984 also became a guest investigator in Rockefeller's Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Immunology. He was appointed professor at Rockefeller in 1996 and named Theresa and Eugene M. Lang Professor in 1997.

Dr. Ravetch received the Coley Award from the Cancer Research Institute in 2007, the American Association of Immunologists-Huang Foundation Meritorious Career Award in 2005, the Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Arthritis Research in 2004 and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award in Molecular Parasitology in 1986. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.

Open to

Public

Host

Introduction by Gnter Blobel

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Robert Houghtaling

Phone

(212) 327-8072

Sponsor

Robert Houghtaling
(212) 327-8072
rhoughtali@rockefeller.edu

Readings

http://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/?p=2717