Stanford university
Stanford, California, United States
Dr. Meffre’s work focuses on the etiology of autoimmune syndromes and the roles played by B cells in these diseases. His group characterized the abnormal selection of developing autoreactive B cells in many patients with autoimmune diseases, resulting in large numbers of autoreactive naïve B cells accumulating in the patient’s blood. These autoreactive B cells may present self-antigens to T cells and initiate autoimmune diseases.
His research goals also consist in characterizing the molecules and pathways involved in the establishment of B cell tolerance and the removal of developing autoreactive B cells generated by random V(D)J recombination through the investigation of rare patients with primary immunodeficiency (PID) enrolled through an international network. Alteration of B cell receptor (BCR) or TLR signaling in PID patients results in a defective central B cell tolerance and a failure to counterselect developing autoreactive B cells in the bone marrow. In contrast, functional and suppressive regulatory T cells play a key role in preventing the accumulation of autoreactive clones in the mature naïve B cell compartment. The recent development of humanized mouse models recapitulating early B cell tolerance checkpoints and their defects in autoimmune settings allow further in depth investigation of tolerance mechanisms and the development of novel approaches to restore defective central and peripheral B cell tolerance checkpoints and thwart autoimmunity.
16S49: Abstracts: B Cell Biology & Targets in Autoimmune & Inflammatory Disease I
Saturday, November 16, 2024
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Eastern Time
No financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose
17S50: Abstracts: B Cell Biology & Targets in Autoimmune & Inflammatory Disease II
Sunday, November 17, 2024
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Eastern Time
No financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose