Gender	Female
E-mail	julie.blander@mssm.edu
Education and Training	Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
	B.S., American University of Beirut
	Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale University School of Medicine
	Internship, University of California
Awards	2009 Thorbecke Award
	2007 - 2010 Searle Scholar
	2003 - 2005 J.V. Satterfield Award Arthritis Foundation

Education and Training	Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
	B.S., American University of Beirut
	Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale University School of Medicine
	Internship, University of California

Specific Clinical/Research Interest: Toll-Like Receptors and control of innate and adaptive immunity

Current Students: Priyanka Nair, Ariel Bulua, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellows: Johan Garaude, Ph.D., Leif E. Sander, M.D., Ph.D., Corinna Brereton, Ph.D.

Current Research Focus
Innate immunity is the body's earliest response to infection. A group of specialized cells called professional antigen presenting cells (APCs) are highly phagocytic, and form a first line of defense against microbial pathogens. Innate defense mechanisms not only protect us against uncontrolled microbial dissemination, but also allow us the time necessary to mount an adaptive immune response specifically tailored to the invading pathogen. During this critical window of time, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and other families of germ line-encoded pattern recognition receptors, initiate a network of important signal transduction pathways. TLRs recognize various structurally unrelated and evolutionarily conserved pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Highly conserved among all species vertebrates and invertebrates alike, TLR signals are directly responsible for initiating the transcriptional activation of key immune response genes.

In the Blander laboratory, we are interested in these very first steps of the innate immune response. We want to understand how innate immune signals influence the most fundamental cellular processes that have the highest impact on the course of the immune response. We study how APCs, namely macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs), respond to signals from TLRs to coordinate changes in endocytic traffic, gene transcription and cell survival. By elucidating how these cells successfully orchestrate the appropriate immune response, we can begin to identify breakpoints during disease and work towards finding solutions to mend them.

Torchinsky MB, Garaude J, Martin A, Blander JM. Innate Immune recognition of infected apoptotic cells directs TH17 cell differentiation. Nature 2009;: in press.

Blander JM. Phagocytosis and antigen presentation: a partnership initiated by Toll-like receptors [review]. Ann Rheum Dis 2008 Dec; 67(Suppl 3): iii44-iii49.

Blander JM. Signalling and phagocytosis in the orchestration of host defence. [review]. Cell Microbiol 2007 February; 9(2): 290-299.

Blander JM. Coupling Toll-like receptor signaling with phagocytosis: potentiation of antigen presentation [review]. Trends Immunol 2007 January; 28(1): 19-25.

Blander JM. On regulation of phagosome maturation and antigen presentation. Nat Immunol 2006 October; 7(10): 1029-1035.

Blander JM, Medzhitov R. Toll-dependent selection of microbial antigens for presentation by dendritic cells. Nature 2006 Apr 6; 440(7085): 808-12.

Amsen D, Blander JM, Lee GR, Tanigaki K, Honjo T, Flavell RA. Instruction of distinct CD4 T helper cell fates by different notch ligands on antigen-presenting cells. Cell 2004 May 14; 117(4): 515-26.

Blander JM, Medzhitov R. Regulation of phagosome maturation by signals from toll-like receptors. Science 2004 May 14; 304(5673): 1014-8.