Alan M. Krensky, M.D.

Administrative Appointments

• Associate Dean, Children's Health Initiative (1999 - present)
• Associate Chair, Stanford University School of Medicine - Pediatrics (1999 - present)
• Shelagh Galligan Professor, Stanford University (1995 - present)
• Chief, Division of Immunology and Transplantation Biology - Pedaitrics (1995 - present)

Honors and Awards

• Young Investigator Award, Society for Pediatric Research (1985)
• Young Investigator Award, American Society of Nephrology/American Heart Association (1990)
• Joseph A. Shankman Award, National Kidney Foundation of Massachusetts (1983)
• Young Investigator Award, American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (1985)
• Award for Excellence in Pediatric Research, American Academy of Pediatrics (1993)

Professional Education

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Cancer Biology
• Immunology
• Chemical and Systems Biology

Research Interests

Research in this laboratory focuses on using knowledge about the basic mechanisms of T lymphocyte biology in order to design novel immunotherapies for use in infectious diseases, transplantation, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. The techniques of cellular immunology, protein chemistry, and molecular biology are used in the following four projects:

1) Immunosuppressive efects of HLA derived peptides. Synthetic peptides corresponding to linear sequences of HLA molecules inhibit T lymphocyte function both in vitro and in vivo. Current studies in the laboratory focus on the mechanism of action of the peptides in signal transduction and transcriptional regulation and identification and characterization of the receptor(s) for peptide. The effect of these peptides in murine models of transplantation, diabetes mellitus, and graft versus host disease is being investigated.

2) Function and transcriptional regulation of expression of the chemokine RANTES. RANTES is a chemoattractant cytokine (chemokine) and HIV suppressor factor first identified in this laboratory. Ongoing studies involve the characterization of novel transcription factors expressed three to five days after T cell activation which are responsible for regulating the RANTES expression in T lymphocytes.

3) The novel cytolyic molecule granulysin. We identified granulysin as a T cell specific gene using subtractive hybridization. It is expressed in CTL and NK cells and kills microbes and tumor cells. Studies in the laboratory are focused on understanding the mechanism of action of granulysin in inducing apoptosis and its target specificity.

4) Role of chemokine lymphotactin in immunologic tolerance.

Publications

• Messenger RNA expression of IL-8, FOXP3, and IL-12beta differentiates latent tuberculosis infection from disease. Wu B, Huang C, Kato-Maeda M, Hopewell PC, Daley CL, Krensky AM, Clayberger C. J Immunol. 2007; 178 (6): 3688-94
• Mechanisms of disease: regulation of RANTES (CCL5) in renal disease. Krensky AM, Ahn YT. Nat Clin Pract Nephrol. 2007; 3 (3): 164-70
• Granulysin-mediated tumor rejection in transgenic mice. Huang LP, Lyu SC, Clayberger C, Krensky AM. J Immunol. 2007; 178 (1): 77-84
• Dynamic interplay of transcriptional machinery and chromatin regulates "late" expression of the chemokine RANTES in T lymphocytes. Ahn YT, Huang B, McPherson L, Clayberger C, Krensky AM. Mol Cell Biol. 2007; 27 (1): 253-66
• Cutting edge: Decreased accumulation and regulatory function of CD4+ CD25(high) T cells in human STAT5b deficiency. Cohen AC, Nadeau KC, Tu W, Hwa V, Dionis K, Bezrodnik L, Teper A, Gaillard M, Heinrich J, Krensky AM, Rosenfeld RG, Lewis DB. J Immunol. 2006; 177 (5): 2770-4