BME Distinguished Speaker: Jennifer Elisseeff, PhD,; Johns Hopkins University

"Regenerative immunotherapies across lifespan"

Abstract: There are profound deficits in how humans, and adults in particular, heal and recover from tissue damage. The alternative to productive tissue healing is the formation of dysfunctional scaring, which underlies chronic degenerative arthritic conditions, chronic autoimmune diseases and the fibrosis associated with the foreign body response to implants. Distinct pathways of adaptive immunity, T cells together with linked activity of innate lymphocytes, regulate productive versus destructive tissue responses in part through their communication with stromal cells including senescent cells. In this talk, we will explore immune-stromal networks including T cell–senescent cell communication that regulate tissue composition and function, and how they change with aging. New therapeutics targeting these pathways will be presented.