NEWS FROM THE BENCH
Congratulations to our Honors Student, Sarah Zhu!
Thanks and good luck!
Originally posted 2016/06/16
ongratulations to Sarah Zhu on her convocation today! Sarah joined us this year as a 4th year Honours student working on a project to identify cells in the inflamed spinal cord in a mouse model of CNS autoimmune disease.
Sarah is off to medical school McMaster University in September, and we wish her all the best.
Congratulations to Yodit for her OGS!
Congrats Yodit!
Originally posted 2016/05/25
Yodit was awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) for the 2016/17 academic year for her work characterizing the B cells that infiltrate the spinal cord meninges in a model of CNS autoimmunity.
Great work! Congratulations!
We welcome a new lab member!
Say hi to Kate!
Originally posted 2016/02/25
We're very pleased to have Dr. Kate Parham join us this past month, coming all the way from Adelaide, Australia.
Kate recently completed her PhD in Vascular Biology at the Centre for Cancer Biology, studying the control of blood vessel formation and differentiation of endothelial cells - the cells that line the insides of blood vessels.
She is joining us here at Western to use multiphoton intravital microscopy to visualise, in real time, the interactions between different immune cells within lymph nodes. We also expect her to help us down a few pints at the bar and teach us the rules for Aussie-rules football.
Rajiv tells the MS Family Conference Youth Leaders about his work
Telling people about our research is an important part of our job.
Originally posted 2015/10/29
Telling people about our research is an important part of our job.
Last weekend, Rajiv traveled to Waterloo to talk to the Youth Leadership at a Family Conference sponsored by the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada about how he got involved in MS research and about what he is trying to learn about how the immune system works (or doesn't) in autoimmune disease.
Rajiv is the recipient of the Waugh Family MS Society of Canada Doctoral Studentship Award.
New KerfootLab Publication
Meningeal infiltration of the spinal cord by non-classically activated B cells is associated with chronic disease course in a spontaneous B cell-dependent model of CNS autoimmune disease.
Originally posted 2015/09/15
Our most recent publication in Frontiers in Immunology has just become available. It is open access, and you can get to it here:
There is a lot of interest in B cells and how they contribute to disease in Multiple Sclerosis. In this paper, we use a mouse model of anti-myelin autoimmunity to ask basic questions about the types of B cells that invade the central nervous system. In some cases of human Multiple Sclerosis, clusters of B cells have been found in the brain and there is some indication that these clusters contribute to promoting local autoimmunity and inflammation. We found similar clusters in our mouse model of disease. Using this model we can perform studies that would not be possible in human patients to learn about how these structures form, what kind of cells they contain, and how they contribute to inflammation.
Our paper is published as part of a "Special Topics" issue titled "Lymphocytes in MS and EAE: more than just a CD4+ world". In recent decades, research has focussed almost exclusively on the role of the CD4+ T cell subset in promoting disease. Recent studies in human multiple sclerosis has challenged the notion that this type of T cell acts alone to cause disease. This Special Topics Issue, edited by Drs. Manu Rangachari, Nathalie Arbour, Jorge Alvarez, and Steve Kerfoot, collects several new papers discussing the potential contribution of other cells, including B cells, CD8+ T cells, and NKT cells.
Congratulations to Heather and Jared!
It’s a boy!
Originally posted 2015/09/15
We're very excited to welcome our first Lab Baby! Congratulations to Heather and her husband Jared, and welcome to Baby Owen.
KerfootLab at the Grand Bend to London 25th Anniversary MS Bike Ride
Back on our bikes.
Originally posted 2015/07/29
Last weekend (July 25-26), members of the KerfootLab and others from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology took part in the local MS Bike Ride to raise funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. The MSSOC funds services for people living with MS and is also an important funding agency for research into the causes and treatment of MS and related diseases such as Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO)). Our own research has been supported by the MSSOC and Rajiv is currently a recipient of an MSSOC Studentship.
The Riders: Steve Kerfoot (3rd from the left), M&I Grad Students Brennan Dirk (2nd from left), Aaron Johnson (middle), Mark Trinder, and Joe Zeppa (right), and friends of the department Andrew Hayward (left) and Eric Williams (3rd from right).
On Saturday, seven intrepid cyclists set out with from Grand Bend and rode the 85km to London. Along the way we stopped in to see our colleagues volunteering and working hard at the lunch station.
Volunteers in the white shirts: KerfootLab members (Top, left to right) Kathleen, Amy, Yodit, Heather, and Rajiv. Kim Arts from the department office in the bottom, centre
That evening, a a fancy video celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Grand Bend/London ride was shown. We were proud to be featured as representative MS researchers supported by the amazing fund raising efforts of the MS Bike Ride. Over $1.2 million was raised this year alone.
Steve talks science - click picture for video
On Sunday the riders left early on a foggy morning to ride back to Grand Bend.
Thanks to all the riders and volunteers that helped us represent Western U, Schulich Med, and the Department! It was a great ride and we hope to be back with an even larger team (and cool team jerseys) next year!
Back in the dark
Fun with microscopes.
Originally posted 2015/06/18
We spend a lot of time in the dark, which is an easy metaphor that you don't need us to expand for you.
More importantly, we had the chance to test drive our new, very fancy multiphoton microscope on some tissue samples brought to us by our Microbiology and Immunology colleague Dr. Hon Leong. We'll post more on this amazing tool soon. In the mean time, here's a preview of what it can do:
You're looking at a 3D reconstruction of a vascular tree in living tissue. Not bad for a first run!
Convocation Day for KerfootLab members
We’re wearing our silly robes.
Originally posted 2015/06/11
Congratulations to Amy and Yodit who graduate today!
Amy Dang was the very first member of the lab and today she received her Masters in Science degree. We'll give her a proper send off soon, but we already miss having her around.
Yodit Tesfagiorgis was an honors project student this past year and received her BSc (hon) today. Yodit isn't leaving us though, and will be starting as a Masters student this September.
Rajiv awarded an MSSOC Studentship!
Congrats Rajiv!
Originally posted 2015/03/22
Congratulations to Rajiv, who was awarded a Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada 2015 PhD Studentship! This prestigious award will support his work to understand how T and B cells collaborate during the early stages of an autoimmune response to myelin protein to start and promote disease.
Both T and B cells are responsible for determining what the immune system is going to attack. Very early in the response, T and B cells interact with each other through direct contact during which they exchange signals and information that leads to the development of different kinds of immune response. The T and B cells themselves can develop into different kinds of cells that play different jobs in the immune response. This is a critical time in the initiation of autoimmune disease and Rajiv aims to understand some of the signals and other regulatory processes that control how the response to a myelin autoantigen develops and how these compare to a response to a “normal” non-self target. This information will be important not only for understanding how the autoimmune disease starts, but also in understanding how B and T cells promote ongoing chronic disease.
Congratulations Rajiv!