Download Department of Immunology - University of Washington Immunology

OUR MISSION IS TO
ADVANCE THE
UNDERSTANDING OF
THE FUNCTION OF THE
IMMUNE SYSTEM IN
ORDER TO ENHANCE
OUR ABILITY TO FIGHT
INFECTIOUS DISEASE ,
CANCER AND
AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE .

ISSUE 1
2014
University of Washington
WELCOME TO OUR FIRST
NEWSLETTER WITH UPDATES
F ROM THE DEP ARTM ENT’ S
AC ADEMIC, RESEARCH AND
SERVI CE ACTI VI TI ES DURI NG THE
L AS T YE AR AT OUR NEW LO C ATI ON
I N SOUTH L AKE UNIO N.
Department of
Immunology
Cutting edge research continues to expand at a
rapid pace at our new South Lake Union 3.1
building. Federal and private awards success
rate has increased over the past year and we are
continuing to grow.
2013—2014
SLU 3.2 coming
soon
SLU 3.1
SLU 2.0
Highlights from the Past Year
Our Department was ranked 5th among all
Immunology departments in the world by U.S.
News Global University Ranking.
 We successfully moved and completed our first
year at our new research building at South Lake
Union (see photo on right).
 Our 3 new Assistant Professors (Ram Savan, Marion
Pepper, Andrew Oberst) were all awarded R01
grants from NIH in the past year and their programs
are growing.
 Direct costs revenue from grants and foundations

awards to Immunology faculty has increased 59%
from the previous fiscal year.
 We have just completed the first year of our new
predoctoral training grant that supported 4
Immunology graduate students: Suzana Orozco,
Talyn Chu, Jenna Sullivan, and Amy Berkley.
 The Center for Innate Immunity and Immune
Disease (CIIID) was established with Michael Gale
as the Director.
 Dan Stetson was promoted to Associate Professor
with Tenure.
We Continue to Grow
The Department has launched Faculty
Searches for three new faculty positions:
 Assistant Professor
 Associate Professor
 Professor.
We are currently interviewing a number
of outstanding candidates.
Visit the Department of Immunology at
http://immunology.washington.edu/
Getting the most
from our research
activities


Michael Gale’s lab was visited this
year in August by Senator Patty
Murray and NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins. The Gale lab
investigates innate immune responses to viruses such as Hepatitis C
virus, West Nile virus, HIV and
Ebola virus.
Daniel Stetson received a Burroughs
Wellcome Fund Award as an Investigator
in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease.
Ed Clark was named to the UW
Presidential Entrepreneurial Faculty in
recognition of his contribution to the
"translational and entrepreneurial culture"
at the UW. He also received a new C4C
Commercialization Gap Fund award.
If you would like to contribute to
the mission and vision of the
Department of Immunology, please
go to
our Giving Page
and select the “Fund for
Excellence in Immunology” option.
The funds are used primarily for
graduate program support, faculty
recruitment and seminars.
C URRENT
D EPARTMENTAL
R ESEARCH
I NTERESTS
Innate Immunity
Tolerance & Autoimmunity
Infectious Diseases
Molecular Immunology
Cancer Immunology
Adaptive Immune Responses
Developmental Immunology
Our Graduate Program

Nine Immunology graduate students defended successfully and completed their PhD degrees: Kate Smiegel, John
Errett, Tony Raubitschek, Sarah Simmons, Matt
Buechler, Albanus Moguche, Amy Berkley, Sterling
Eckard, and Shivani Srivastava. All of them have
received new positions in research institutions or industry
shortly after their graduation.
 Our graduate students have been very successful in
receiving fellowship awards and funding with total direct
costs of $266,798 received in individual fellowships
since September 2013.
 Sandra L. Clark Immunology Education Fund supported
3 trips for Immunology graduate students who were
given the opportunity to present their research at international conferences and meetings: Matt Beuchler (Nairobi,
Kenya), Shivani Srivastava (Corfu, Greece), Amy
Berkley (Bertinoro, Italy). The fund also provided sup-
By Joan Goverman, PhD
Professor & Chair
Department of Immunology




port for our Immunology Annual Retreat guest speaker
Dr. Kenneth Murphy.
We have added a new course to our graduate program
called “Immunological Based Diseases and Treatment”
designed to promote graduate student exposure to
translational immunology.
Our graduate students hold “Meet the Speaker” lunches
with each of the speakers in our Seminar Series.
This month we had our 2014 Immunology Retreat at Port
Worden, WA which was a great success. The students
enjoyed spending time with invited speaker Dr. Ken
Murphy from the Washington University (see pictures
below and on next page).
We are welcoming five new graduate students to the
Immunology Graduate Program this year: Rebecca
Fitzmeier, Rodolfo Nazitto, Jared Delahaye, Annelise
Snyder, Kerri Thomas.