Dr. John Weis has recently received an NIH Research Project (RO1) grant, awarded to his lab for continuation of his outstanding research.  The 5-year grant, ($1,681,875 total costs) extended from 19 previous years of funded research, will provide the funding for equipment, supplies and scientists. 
    The focus of Dr. Weis’ research is primarily on the functions of a subset of proteins found on the surface of B lymphocytes, or B cells, as they mature from their undifferentiated and unspecified state in bone marrow to mature cells in the periphery, ready to respond to immune challenges.   As they move from the marrow to the lymphatic sites such as the spleen, they undergo characteristic changes in phenotype and functionality. 
    Dr. Weis and colleagues have been particularly interested in that B cell change, mainly why and how it occurs.  This interest directs them to the proteins on the cell surface that turn on at a specific moment during the maturation process, causing the major changes.  The question of how and why the proteins get turned on when they do, why they aren’t on earlier in differentiation, or later still, is a central topic of study.  They have identified a “window” in the B cell life where the transition from immature cell to mature cell occurs.
    At this transitional B cell stage, there is a major shift of gene expression including numerous transcription factors that, in turn, either induce further gene expression or suppress the expression of genes encoding proteins that are not needed by the mature B cell to function. The lab has identified a number of new and novel genes that they have proposed are critical for that particular transition step.  Future research will be focused on finding out if those genes are making proteins that are important for the maturation step, and creating mice with altered expression profiles of these genes (either by loss of function or over-expression studies) to determine their full functions in B cell maturation.
    Historically the lab has been interested in the roles of a number of innate immune response characteristics of B cells for activation and maturation, mainly looking at complement receptors and how complement activation is tied in with the B cell antibody-specific response.  In addition to the protein research, Dr. Weis and his lab is currently carrying out a set of experiments that will look at and analyze B cells that don’t have the complement receptors, specifically looking for lack of B cell signaling, compromised immune responses as well as working to identify cross-talk between recognition pathways utilized by the innate and acquired immune responses. 
    Congratulations to Dr. Weis and his colleagues for this great achievement, and good luck with further research!