How Do Amino Acids Regulate Immunity

I was born and raised in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The key trigger for my entree into science was a reading an general article in the local library about antigen switching in Trypanosoma Brucei, which I thought was most incredible thing Id ever seen. Performing poorly in the state examinations I began my undergraduate studies in history Monash University, but managed to convince the dean to transfer me to the school of Science where I did well. I went to the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute for Ph.D. studies where I focused on host parasite interactions using Leishmania major as a model system (no one was working on T. brucei unfortunately). I then moved to Whitehead Institute/MIT Biology Dept. to do my post-doctoral work with Rick Young. Ricks lab was (and is) huge and I was able to work on many different techniques and problems, but most importantly I was exposed to an incredible cadre of fellow post-docs and students who gave me many new ideas. In 1998 I moved to Memphis to join the faculty of St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, then a small institution set to grow dramatically, where I have spent my independent career. Throughout this period I have mainly focused in immune regulation, and most recently on immune regulatory events mediated by metabolic crosstalk. Im probably best known for my work on macrophages, IL-10 and arginine metabolism in immunity. My lab is now translating my principles of learned from infection biology to the cancer arena.

Contact

  Margaret Weber
  maw71@psu.edu
  814-865-7697