NC State Leading New Collaborative Grant to Study Immune Receptors

The National Science Foundation has awarded a three-year $1.5 million award to an interdisciplinary, interinstitutional team of researchers from NC State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The grant includes a $645,180 award for NC State. 

The researchers seek to understand the evolutionary history and functional diversification of the CD300 protein family of immune receptors, which play a crucial role in the immune response of humans and other animals.

The lead principal investigator is Jeff Yoder, executive director of the Genetics and Genomics Academy and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. Erin Baker, an associate professor of chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Alex Dornburg, an assistant professor of bioinformatics at UNC-Charlotte, are the principal investigators at their respective universities.

In humans, CD300 proteins have been found to play a role in the regulation of cancers, inflammatory diseases and viral infections. The receptors are present in all mammalian species, but their numbers vary dramatically between species and little is known about their function across different species. Findings from the project could provide valuable insights into how CD300 receptors contribute to immune function and disease susceptibility in all mammals, including humans. Ultimately, the research findings could inform the development of new therapeutic strategies. 

The project collaborators will also create several scientific outreach opportunities for underserved students throughout North Carolina, including those from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). The researchers will create a novel card game to help students learn about pathogens and the immune system. They will work with The Science House, the College of Sciences’ K-12 outreach unit, to incorporate the card game into new biology course modules that schools across the country can adapt. The Science House will work with middle and high school teachers in North Carolina to pilot the modules in their classrooms, and the final versions of the modules will be available to teachers on The Science House website. Additionally, the researchers will work with members of the EBCI to develop an expansion of the card game that will integrate the Cherokee language, history and culture.

Yoder is a leader in comparative immunology with an emphasis on understanding how immune systems recognize and destroy invading pathogens while leaving their own cells unscathed. His research spans all vertebrates, but he uses zebrafish, rodents and human cells as models for discovery.

Yoder joined the NC State faculty in 2004, most recently serving as a professor of innate immunology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. He earned his bachelor’s in biotechnology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1990 and his doctorate in cell and developmental biology from Harvard University in 1998. 

This post was originally published in College of Sciences News.