Elizabeth Mellins

Administrative Appointments

• Advisory Board, Nature Reviews Rheumatology (2005 - present)
• Developer and co-Director, Introduction to Medicine for PhDs, Stanford School of Medicine (2001 - present)
• Member, Medical and Scientific Advisory Council, Arthritis Foundation (national) (2003 - 2006)
• Member,CMB-I StudySection, NIAID, NIH (2002 - 2007)

Honors and Awards

• Within Our Reach grant recipient, ACR Research & Education Fund (2007)
• Distinguished Service Award, American Association of Immunologists (2005)

Professional Education

Postdoctoral Advisees

Tieying Hou,  Wei Jiang,  Henriette MacMillan,  Narendiran Rajasekaran,  Nan Wang

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Cancer Biology
• Immunology
• Pediatrics

Community and International Work

• Understanding Childhood Arthritis Network 
• Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance 

Current Research Interests

Our lab focuses on the study of antigen presentation by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules. We have been particularly interested in the molecular mechanisms and intracellular steps involved in the generation of complexes between MHC class II molecules and peptides. Our work in this area has elucidated the roles of invariant chain and HLA-DM,
two molecules which regulate peptide-loading of class II molecules. In addition, we have investigated the molecular basis of HLA-DR4 association with rheumatoid arthritis. Ongoing
studies deal with:

1. Analysis of the biosynthesis, structure, and structure/function relationships of the HLA-DM and HLA-DO molecules.
2. Regulation of class II biosynthesis in professional antigen presenting cells.
3. Mechanistic basis of HLA allele association with autoimmune disease
4. Disease mechanisms in systemic idiopathic juveile arthritis

Publications

• Alternative activation in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis monocytes. Macaubas C, Nguyen KD, Peck A, Buckingham J, Deshpande C, Wong E, Alexander HC, Chang SY, Begovich A, Sun Y, Park JL, Pan KH, Lin R, Lih CJ, Augustine EM, Phillips C, Hadjinicolaou AV, Lee T, Mellins ED. Clin Immunol. 2011
• An insertion mutant in DQA1*0501 restores susceptibility to HLA-DM: implications for disease associations. Hou T, Macmillan H, Chen Z, Keech CL, Jin X, Sidney J, Strohman M, Yoon T, Mellins ED. J Immunol. 2011; 187 (5): 2442-52
• Chaperone activity of α B-crystallin is responsible for its incorrect assignment as an autoantigen in multiple sclerosis. Rothbard JB, Zhao X, Sharpe O, Strohman MJ, Kurnellas M, Mellins ED, Robinson WH, Steinman L. J Immunol. 2011; 186 (7): 4263-8
• Human cytomegalovirus decreases constitutive transcription of MHC class II genes in mature Langerhans cells by reducing CIITA transcript levels. Lee AW, Wang N, Hornell TM, Harding JJ, Deshpande C, Hertel L, Lacaille V, Pashine A, Macaubas C, Mocarski ES, Mellins ED. Mol Immunol. 2011; 48 (9-10): 1160-7
• Pathogenesis of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis: some answers, more questions. Mellins ED, Macaubas C, Grom AA. Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2011; 7 (7): 416-26