Immunology Collaborators at UF Scripps Biomedical Research (current and former)
The Pipkin lab
The Pipkin lab works to elucidate how chromatin structure and transcription controls the gene expression programs that establish and maintain the differentiated states of CD8 T cells. The lab specifically studies how naïve CD8 T cells differentiate into effector and memory cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). CTL are killer lymphocytes that hold outstanding promise for controlling viral infections and cancer therapeutically, as they can be employed in adoptive immunotherapy and are the target of successful vaccination.
The Sundrud lab
The Sundrud lab, who recently relocated to the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, is focused on understanding the molecular underpinnings of inflammatory T cell development and tissue inflammation. Recently, the lab has been focusing on nuclear receptor transcriptional networks and the regulation of intestinal T cell development and function. The ultimate goal of their research is to enable the design of better, more specific therapies.
Nuclear Receptor Collaborators at UF Scripps Biomedical Research
The Griffin Lab
www.griffin.florida.scripps.edu
The Griffin lab is focused on protein structure and function, specifically mutational and ligand-mediated alterations in protein structural plasticity and quantitative structural SAR to facilitate lead optimization of molecules targeting therapeutic proteins. The Griffin lab has a major focus on understanding nuclear receptor signaling and has made significant contribution to understand the mechanism of ligand activation of nuclear receptors, including PPARs, RORs, REV-ERBs, LRH1, VDR, ER, GR, and PR. Using structural, chemical, and biological approaches, the Griffin lab aims to develop functionally selective modulators of various nuclear receptors to target diseases such as cancer, autoimmune, obesity, and diabetes.
The Kojetin Lab
The Kojetin lab is focused on understanding the mechanism of action of small molecule ligands – how they change the structure and conformational dynamics of the nuclear receptors they target and how this contributes to biological function. The Kojetin lab uses biomolecular NMR spectroscopy as well as other structural, biophysical, and functional techniques to understand the structural and dynamic mechanism of action of validated nuclear receptor drugs. Their major goal is to understand how ligand-regulated conformational dynamics contributes to the overall function of the nuclear receptors and the pharmacological phenotype of the ligand – and how these changes may be exploited for purposes of pharmaceutical drug design.
The Kamenecka Lab
www.scripps.ufl.edu/profile/kamenecka-theodore/
The Kamenecka lab is interested in the design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel compounds of biological and therapeutic interest. Currently, the Kamenecka lab is involved in the design and synthesis of novel small molecule modulators of nuclear hormone receptors, GPCRs, ion channels, and kinases for the therapeutic treatment of diabetes, obesity, sleep, addiction, autoimmune, and chronic inflammatory diseases. They work closely with many departments to optimize lead compounds for potency, ADME, safety pharmacology, and toxicology in order to generate compounds suitable for preclinical development.
The Nettles Lab
www.scripps.ufl.edu/profile/nettles-kendall/
The Nettles lab is focused on understanding ligand-mediated regulation of the estrogen and glucocorticoid receptors (ER and GR, respectively) in breast cancer, metabolism, and inflammation. The Nettles lab uses a combination of structural, biophysical, molecular biology, and in vivo techniques to understand nuclear receptor and ligand-regulated dynamic mechanism of action of both validated and novel nuclear receptor drugs. Their major goal is to understand how ligand-regulated dynamics contributes to the overall function of ER and GR and how these changes may be exploited for drug design.