William C. Davis
William C. Davis, PhD
Professor
Director of the WSU Monoclonal Antibody Center and the Flow Cytometry Facility.
The overall program in immunology is focused on analysis of the mechanisms
regulating the immune response to infectious agents and derived vaccines.
Ongoing studies are focused on: 1) Development and characterization of
monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to leukocyte differentiation molecules, cytokines,
chemokines, and respective receptors involved in activation and maturation of
nave T- and B-lymphocytes and antigen presenting cells. Characterization of new
mAbs involves the use of flow cytometry, molecular techniques, and a web-based
taxonomic key program (TKP)
http://vetmed.wsu.edu/tkp . The TKP
program is designed to facilitate the comparative analysis of the specificity of
mAbs specific for known and new leukocyte differentiation molecules. 2)
Determining the factors that modulate uptake, processing, and presentation of
exogenous antigens on MHC class I and class II molecules by antigen presenting
cells (APC). Studies involve the use of in vitro culture techniques and RT-PCR
to study APC activation following antigen uptake and flow cytometry to study the
phenotypic changes that occur during the evolution of an immune response from
nave T cells to effector and memory T cells. 3) Elucidation of the role of gd T
cells in first line of defense in cattle. Current studies are focused on
characterizing gd T cell subpopulations in cattle and determining the factors
that regulate activation and function of gd T cells. The studies involve the use
of flow cytometry to isolate cells for in vitro culture and molecular analysis.
Publications
PubMed
