Name: Mark Pezzano Phone: 212-650-8559 Fax: 212-650-8585 Email: mpezzano@sci.ccny.cuny.edu Office Location: MR-632

Mentor's Bio:
Molecular Biologist.

Research Topic(s) Summary:
How the immune system learns to distinguish self from foreign antigens.

Description of Research:
How the immune system learns to distinguish self from foreign antigens which is critical in understanding immune function and the development of auto immune diseases. The focus of his research is understanding the role that thymic stromal cells play in presenting self antigens to developing thymocytes and driving thymocyte selection. More specifically, Thymic Nurse Cells (TNCs) TNCs are composed of a cortical epithelial cell which internalizes from 20-200 immature thymocytes into specialized vacuoles in it's cytoplasm. His lab has recently demonstrated that peripheral macrophages home to TNCs and effect T cell repertoire selection.