Brian Edelson, MD, PhD

Brian Edelson, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology

Research Interest

Islet Biology and Immunology

Category(ies) of Research

Basic

Research Decsriptor

I am interested in how macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) develop and function, particularly with regards to the heterogeneous nature of these cells in diverse anatomic locations. I am particularly interested in the role of granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and how it leads to the differentiation of blood monocytes into inflammatory DCs. I am developing a project to analyze inflammatory DCs in type 1 diabetes, using the NOD (nonobese diabetic) mouse model. I plan to characterize pancreatic islets and pancreatic draining lymph nodes for the presence of inflammatory DCs during the development of diabetes in NOD mice. In addition, I have begun to generate GM-CSF receptor-deficient mice on the NOD background. GM-CSF receptordeficient mice are known to be resistant to the T cell mediated disease experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of multiple sclerosis. In EAE, normal priming of pathogenic autoimmune T cells is dependent on GM-CSF, and a similar dependence on GM-CSF may be occurring in type 1 diabetes. This issue will be studied when I have completed mouse backcrossing.