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UID:2026051505303020250930T14000020250930T1500006a07583607f54@uic.edu
CATEGORIES:MEETING
STATUS:TENTATIVE
DTSTAMP:20250407T045422
DTSTART:20250930T140000
DTEND:20250930T150000
SUMMARY:Regulation of DNA and Histone Methylation, Clonal Hematopoiesis, and Cancer: Anjana Rao, PhD
DESCRIPTION:   	Guest Speaker: Anjana Rao, PhD   	Lecture: 2-3 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, CMWT 227 Irwin Auditorium   	Reception: 3-4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, CMWT Faculty Alumni Lounge   	Registration: Please let us know if you will be attending in person by registering   	Livestream:?We encourage in-person attendance, but you can also view the lecture on our YouTube channel    Dr. Rao is a professor in the Division of Signaling and Gene Expression and the Pfizer Endowed Chair in Cancer Immunology and Oncology at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, as well as an adjunct professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She is a leader of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.    Dr. Rao identified important regulators of T cell differentiation at both the genetic and epigenetic level and showed how they influence subsequent immune responses. Her current research continues to focus on characterizing the molecular mechanisms that underlie signaling activity and gene expression in T cells.    She previously showed that gene expression is regulated by calcium influx into many different types of cells: it involves a process known as store-operated calcium entry, which activates a phosphatase, calcineurin, which dephosphorylates and sends a transcription factor, NFAT, to the nucleus. NFAT turns on a large number of genes, in a manner appropriate to the cell type and mode of stimulation. In T cells, it controls both the positive transcriptional programs of T cell ?activation? and negative programs, known variously as ?exhaustion,? ?anergy? or ?dysfunction,? that attenuate T cell activation. Her current research will contribute to a broad mechanistic understanding of the transcriptional mechanisms operating in tumor-infiltrating immune cells and may spark improved immunotherapies for cancer patients.    More recently, her laboratory has focused on the role of epigenetic regulators in gene expression including the enzymatic activities of the three mammalian TET (Ten-Eleven-Translocation) proteins, TET1, TET2 and TET3. TET proteins regulate gene expression and enhancer activity, and play a central role in cell lineage specification, embryonic development, neuronal function and cancer.    She received the 2016 Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology and has also been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. | Event post: https://medicine.uic.edu/events?page_id=9423
LOCATION:CMWT 227, Irwin Auditorium    Select 
CLASS:PRIVATE
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