Ninan Abraham

Professor

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Research Focus Teams

COVID-19, Cancer

Research Interests

Cytokines in airway, tumor immunity

Departments

Microbiology & Immunology, Zoology

Bio

Dr. Abraham is a Full Professor jointly appointed in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Department of Zoology. He started at UBC in 2003, with previous post graduate and graduate training at Gladstone Institutes, UCSF; University of Ottawa (Ph.D.), McGill University (M.Sc.) and Dalhousie University (B.Sc, Combd. Hons.). His love for molecular immunology grew out of this training which spanned protein kinase biochemistry, molecular oncology, anti-viral responses and cytokine regulation of immune responses, our current focus.

abraham lab

Research Summary

Cytokines are immune hormones that help orchestrate the intricacies of the nature and intensity of an immune response to environmental and microbial challenges. Our lab is focused on the interleukin-7 cytokine family, which includes IL-7 and Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin (TSLP). IL-7 is in several clinical trials for its immune reconstitution properties in HIV-AIDS, bone marrow transplants and cancer immunotherapy. IL-7 is an essential survival cytokine for several immune cell types (T-, B-, innate lymphoid cells and iNKT cells) such that loss of IL-7 or its receptor causes severe combined immunodeficiency.

Ongoing Projects

Dissecting novel IL-7 roles in T effector cell function against pathogens, namely Influenza/A and Listeria monocytogenes
Evaluating their potential in boosting memory T cell specificity to Influenza/A
Determining the barrier integrity role of these cytokines in airway immunity
Detailing their role in B cell development both in bone marrow progenitors as well as in various peripheral B cell subsets; we are interested in the role of IL-7 signals in functional B cell responses to mount antibody responses to Influenza/A
Using genetic, knock-in and conditional knockout disruption approaches to assess what IL-7 receptor signals are critical for supporting T- and B progenitors and mature lymphocytes
We are interested in how we can target signals from the IL-7R for therapeutic benefit.