2015 CHS/MST graduate Reesab Pathak recently received a co-author credit in an article published in the February 2016 issue of Science. Much of the work he contributed to this study was based off the internship experienced he had through the MST program at OHSU. Congratulations, Reese. Mr. Pathak is currently conducting his undergraduate studies at Stanford.
“One promising approach toward an HIV-1 vaccine involves infecting people with cytomegalovirus engineered to express proteins from HIV-1. This approach, which works by eliciting virus-killing CD8+ T cells, provides robust protection in nonhuman primate models. Hansen et al. have found out why this approach is so effective. Normally, peptide antigens presented by major histocompatibility complex-1a (MHC-Ia) activate CD8+ T cells. In vaccinated monkeys, however, CD8+ T cells reacted to peptide antigens presented by MHC-E molecules instead. Moreover, MHC-E could present a much wider range of peptides than MHC-Ia.” Science 12 Feb 2016