Edited by: Karen Young Kreeger
K.W. Wucherpfennig, J.L. Strominger, "Molecular mimicry in T cell-mediated autoimmunity: Viral peptides activate human T cell clones specific for myelin basic protein," Cell, 80:695-705, 1995. (Cited in more than 90 publications as of March 1997)
 IMMUNE IMPERSONATIONS: Kai Wucherpfennig’s work with T-cell clones may explain why some autoimmune diseases are related to microbial infections. |
Many autoimmune diseases are related to microbial infections, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists for years. One of the theories explaining how pathogens induce an immune reaction is called molecular mimicry. According to this theory, a viral or bacterial peptide is similar enough to a human peptide to cause an autoimmune reaction.
When Kai Wucherpfennig, now an assistant professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, came to work in the lab of molecular biologist Jack Strominger at Harvard, ...
