Andrea Ochoa-Raya was competitively selected for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for their Travel Award to attend the Autumn Immunology Conference in November 2019. Andrea will present her work utilizing whole-organ clearing strategies to characterize regional differences in the blood-spinal cord barrier.
NeuroImmunology Symposium in St. Louis
Dr. Lutz will present November 20, 2019 at the Washington University College of Medicine CNNB NeuroImmunology Symposium and poster session. Details and registration at https://cnnd.wustl.edu/upcoming-events/
Undergraduate Fellowship Awarded
Congratulations Harry, a rising senior Biology major at UIC, for receiving a merit-based award from LASURI to support his research addressing the protein Caveolin-1 in neurovascular inflammation. Harry previously received the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Award.
Presentations at AIC
Poster Presentation @ the Autumn Immunology Conference 2018. Our group gave a talk (presented by Liz) and poster (lead author Troy). We’ll be back again next year!
Lab Multiple Sclerosis Walk Chicago
Travel Award Congratulations
Congrats to Troy Trevino for receiving a travel award from the UIC GEMS program to present his work at the Cold Spring Harbor Blood-Brain Barrier meeting #CSHLBBB
New lab members
Congratulations to new lab member Andrea Ochoa-Raya for being awarded fellowships from LASURI and from the Latin@s Gaining Access to Networks for Advancement in Science (L@SGANAS) for undergraduate research at UIC in the Lutz lab. Welcome also to lab volunteer Elizabeth Pietruczyk and UIC undergrad Mary Horne.
News Features
Our Cell Reports story has been featured with a scientific recommendation by the Faculty of 1000 F1000 Prime as well as media outlets including Medical News Today, AAAS Eureka Alert, MD Magazine, Science Daily, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, UIC Today, and Multiple Sclerosis News Today.
Putting the squeeze on the blood-brain barrier
Our newest publication is out in Cell Reports. We showed that Th17 and Th1 lymphocytes use different mechanisms to cross the blood-brain barrier – and cause disease – in animal models of multiple sclerosis. Surprisingly, a majority of Th1 cells actually squeeze through the endothelial cell cytoplasm instead of going through gaps between cells. This process requires endothelial caveolae. Part of the agenda for the Lutz lab is building upon these findings for new ways to therapeutically block or enhance blood-brain barrier permeability. A second surprising finding was that caveolae are not involved in the internalization and destruction of large tight junction segments in the living blood-brain barrier.
This work was done during my post-doctoral training in the lab of Dr. Dritan Agalliu at Columbia University Medical Center, with significant guidance on intravital two-photon microscopy from Dr. Sunil Gandhi at University of California, Irvine. Thanks to excellent collaborators Julian Smith, Dae Hwan (Glenn) Kim, Carl Olson, Kyle Ellefsen, and Jennifer Bates.
Full text can be viewed at the Cell Reports website: http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(17)31574-7
New Translational Neuroimmunology Lab @ University of Illinois at Chicago
We are a new lab joining the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine (2017). Our main goal is to identify and repair mechanisms of damage in neuroinflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis using cutting-edge genetic and imaging modalities. Contact us if you are interested in working with us!