PME Distinguished Colloquium Series: Ignacio Moraga Gonzalez

<b>Molecular and Environmental determinants defining cytokines functional diversity</b><br /><br />

Cytokines are a large family of soluble messengers whose main function is to oversee the correct functioning of the immune response. Cytokines elicit their activities by dimerizing surface receptors and activating the JAK/STAT pathway. This, in turns, induces the expression of specific gene programs that lead to a wide range of biological responses. Despite their relevancy for human health, translation of cytokines to the clinic has been hindered by their high toxicity, which it is often associated with their large functional pleiotropy. How cytokines generate signaling specificity and functional pleiotropy remains poorly defined. My laboratory focuses on addressing this important question and studies how changes on cytokine-cytokine receptor binding parameters impact signaling outcome and biological responses by cytokines. I will be presenting new work describing how cytokines surrogate ligands engineered to bind cytokine receptors with different affinities, topologies, and stoichiometries than their wild-type counterparts, trigger biased signaling programs, and produce more defined biological responses. The molecular understanding arising from these studies will help to design more specific and less toxic cytokine-based therapies.<br /><br />

Host: Juan Mendoza

<a href="https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/99200999029?pwd=bjhzR3RTVkpRNGNlb0VnVlg2aXpU… Link</a>