Research Interests
Antiviral immunity, Auto-Immune Diseases, Viral Immunology, Virome
Research Focus Teams
Cancer, COVID-19, Diabetes, Obesity, Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis
Departments
Contact
Email: maria.tokuyama@ubc.ca
Office Phone: phone: 604–827–0992
Publications
Lab Website
Dr. Tokuyama has always been interested in the interaction between viruses and the immune system. As an undergrad at University of California, Irvine, she worked in an infectious disease lab that focused on HIV research and obtained her B.S. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. She then worked at the National Institutes of Health at the Vaccine Research Center studying Ebola virus vaccines. Dr. Tokuyama obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of California, Berkeley where she studied mechanisms of how natural kill cells recognize and kill cell infected by herpesviruses. Dr. Tokuyama trained at Yale University in the Department of Immunobiology, where she became fascinated by endogenous retroviruses and established the foundation for the research that she will carry out at UBC. In the past year, Dr. Tokuyama has also been part of the Yale IMPACT Team to develop a rapid saliva-based qPCR assay for SARS-CoV-2 and contributing to research on understanding immunological impacts of COVID-19.
2019 American Society of Virology Cares Award
2019 Best oral presentation for postdocs at Yale Human Translational Immunology Retreat
2016 Best poster award for postdocs at Yale Immunology Retreat
2013-2015 Postdoctoral NIH T32 in Human and Translational Immunology, Yale School of Medicine
2010-2011 UC Cancer Coordinating Committee Graduate Fellowship, UC Berkeley
2002-2005 Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Fellow, UC Irvine
The overarching goal of our lab is to identify immunological mechanisms that underlie heterogeneity in disease outcomes. Our lab seeks to understand how interactions between the immune system and the virome influence outcomes of viral infection and autoimmunity. In particular, we are focused on uncovering immunomodulatory functions of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), which are retroviral sequences that make up a large fraction of the human genome. Using clinical samples, in vivo mouse models and 2D and 3D cell cultures, we seek to uncover how endogenous viral proteins affect immune cell signaling and function in health and disease through transcriptomic, proteomic and functional assays. Furthermore, we will employ computational analysis methods to study endogenous viral elements to deepen our understanding of how these elements are regulated and their potential roles in clinical outcomes. Ultimately, our goal is to identify novel biomarkers and develop biologics that mimic beneficial ERV-immune interactions while blocking detrimental interactions to prevent and treat viral infections and chronic inflammatory diseases.
We currently have multiple projects aimed at uncovering how the interaction between ERVs and the immune system impacts antiviral immunity and excessive inflammation in autoimmunity. We rely on multidisciplinary approaches and novel tools in virology, immunology, and computational genomics.
Ultimately, our goal is to identify novel endogenous viral factors that underlie immunity and contribute towards development of immune modulators to treat infections and chronic inflammatory diseases.
For more information: tokuyamalab.wordpress.com