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Dr. Wilson:

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Immunobiology and Cancer Research Program

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Patrick C. Wilson, Ph.D. Assistant Member, Immunobiology and Cancer Research Program Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology,   University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

Research Interests
The diversity and efficiency of mechanisms employed by the immune system to combat infections leads to a precarious balance between protection and immune reactivity to our own tissues. It is a wonder that most people, for most of their lives, maintain protection without significant autoimmune pathology. However, as many as one in five people do eventually suffer from an autoimmune disease such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis or many other diseases.

Understanding the fate of B cells in healthy subjects that may be the precursors for the generation of dangerous autoantibodies causing pathology in various autoimmune diseases, such as lupus or arthritis, is critical to understanding and controlling these diseases. We have devised means to quantitatively assess various differentiations of B lymphocytes in humans and mice for the propensity to be reactive to our own tissues.

Using this technology, we have described B-cell differentiations that occur in normal individuals because the B cells involved are reactive to our own tissues. The specific mechanisms leading to these B-cell differentiations and the role of these cells in immunity are not known but are the basis of several projects in my laboratory.

We have recently expanded these interests to include analyses of how normal people compare to people with lupus in the development of immunity to influenza vaccination. Lupus patients have both auto-reactive B cells and, at the same time, a reduced capacity for an effective normal immune response. In this study we hope to both better understand lupus as a disease and to gain insight into how to more effectively immunize immuno-compromised people.

The long-term goals of my laboratory are to describe how self-reactive B cells in healthy individuals differentiate and to determine the role of these B-cell populations in protective immunity despite the danger of autoimmune disease. A better understanding of the basic mechanisms that control B cells reactive to our own tissues in healthy people will lead to understanding and possible therapeutic intervention for many autoimmune diseases.

Joined OMRF Scientific Staff in 2002.

Mailing Address
Immunobiology and Cancer Research Program, MS 17
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
825 N.E. 13th Street
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73104

Contact Information
Phone: (405) 271-6673
Fax: (405) 271-8237
E-mail: Patrick-Wilson@omrf.org