Gender	Female
E-mail	ana.sesma@mssm.edu
Education and Training	M.S., University of Salamanca
	Ph.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York

Education and Training	M.S., University of Salamanca
	Ph.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York

Specific Clinical/Research Interests Mechanisms of evasion of immunity by dengue and influenza viruses; human immunology in viral infections. Generation of recombinant viruses.

Current Students: Timothy Savage, Dailia Francis

Postdoctoral Fellows: Juan R. Rodriguez-Madoz, Irene Ramos

Research Personnel: Dabeiba Bernal-Rubio

Summary of Research Studies:
There are two main research interests in my laboratory. One of them is the interaction of different viruses with human dendritic cells (DCs), since DCs are the antigen presenting cells responsible for the initiation of antiviral immune responses (Th1).In particular we are interested on the effects of viral antagonists on the maturation pattern of human DCs. By using quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) and other techniques such as flow cytometry and multiplex ELISA, we can determine the changes in the maturational profile of humans DCs after infection with different viruses. We have used influenza viruses and recombinant NDV viruses in our system. Our laboratory is part of the Center for the Investigation of Viral Immunity and Antagonism (CIVIA). The other main project of my laboratory is to study the initiation of immunity by dengue virus (DenV) using different human cells from blood. We also want to analyze the effect of pre-existing immunity to DenV in the initiation of immunity by human DCs. We have an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Jorge Muňoz at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Puerto Rico for this project. Additionally, we are generating recombinant NDV expressing DenV proteins in collaboration with Dr. Adolfo Garcia-Sastre's laboratory.

Phipps-Yonas H, Seto J, Sealfon SC, Moran TM, Fernandez-Sesma A. Interferon- Plasmacytoid Human Dendritic Cells Enhances their Activation by Influenza Virus. PLoS Pathogens 2008 Oct 31; 4(10): e1000193.

Borderia-Giner A, Hartman B, Fernandez-Sesma A, Moran TM, Sealfon SC. Antiviral activated dendritic cells, a paracrine induced response state. J. Immunol 2008; 181: 6872-6881.

Escribese MM, Kraus T, Rhee E, Fernandez-Sesma A, Lopez CB, Moran TM. Estrogen Inhibits Dendritic Cell Maturation To dsRNA Viruses. Blood 2008; 112(12): 4574-4584.

Madan RP, Tan M, Fernandez-Sesma A, Moran TM, Emre S, Campbell A, Herold BC. A Prospective, Comparative Study of the Immune Response to Inactivated Influenza Vaccine in Pediatric Liver Transplant Recipients and their Healthy Siblings. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2008; 46(5): 712-718.

Hu J, Sealfon SC, Hayot F, Jayaprakash C, Kumar M, Pendleton AC, Ganee A, Fernandez-Sesma A, Moran TM, Wetmur JG. Chromosome-specific and noisy IFN transcription in individual virus-infected human primary dendritic cells. Nucl. Acids Res 2007; 35: 5232-5241.

Fernandez-Sesma A, Moran TM. The role of the influenza virus NS1 protein on evasion of immunity. Future Virology 2007; 2(4): 389-399.

Fernandez-Sesma A, Marukian S, Ebersole B, Kaminski D, Park MS, Yuen T, Sealfon S, Garcia-Sastre A, Moran TM. Influenza virus evades innate and adaptive immunity via the NS1 protein. J Virol 2006; 80(13): 6295-6304.

Martinez-Sobrido L, Gitiban N, Fernandez-Sesma A, Mertz SE, Jewell N, Durbin RK, Garcia-Sastre A, Durbin JE. Recombinant Newcastle Disease Virus as a Vaccine Vector for Respiratory Syncytial Virus. J Virol 2006; 80(3): 1130-1139.

Falcon AM, Fernandez-Sesma A, Nakaya Y, Moran TM, Ortin J, Garcia-Sastre A. Attenuation and immunogenicity in mice of temperature-sensitive influenza viruses expressing truncated NS1 proteins. JGenVirol 2005; 86(10): 2817-2821.

Fernandez-Sesma A. The influenza virus NS1 protein: inhibitor of innate and adaptive immunity. Infectious disorders-drug targets 2007 Dec; 7(4): 336-343.