MBL Friday Evening Lecture Series: “Kinase Turntabilism: Tuning T Cell Activation” – Avery August, HHMI; Cornell University

Whether you’re in Woods Hole or halfway around the world, join us for this venerable MBL lecture series.

Lectures are free and open to the public for in-person and virtual attendance. No registration required for in-person attendance. Doors open at 7:30 PM, lectures start at 8 PM in the Cornelia Clapp Auditorium.

Avery August, Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and HHMI Professor of Immunology, Cornell University

The CD4+ T cell immune responses include a range of effector cell types that produce inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. The differentiation of these effector cells requires signals from the antigen-specific T cell receptor complex. How this one receptor generates such varied response remains highly investigated. This lecture will explore the role of the tyrosine kinase Itk, which regulates T cell Receptor signal strength, in tuning the activation and differentiation of CD4+ effector cell balance.

Avery August received a BS in Medical Technology from California State University, Los Angeles, a Ph.D. in Immunology from Cornell University’s Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Rockefeller University. After a brief stint in industry at the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute as a Scientist, he moved to The Pennsylvania State University where he was Distinguished Professor, prior to moving to Cornell as Chair of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. He is currently HHMI Professor, Professor of Immunology, and Deputy Provost at Cornell University. He is the chair of the Steering Committee for ABRCMS, and has led the development of programs aimed at diversifying STEM at all levels. He has served on several national and international government and non-profit committees. His research focuses on understanding the signals that regulate the balance of inflammation and pathology.