Education:
MD Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Bucharest, Romania; Residency Coltea Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania; Specialty in Hematology Institute of Hematology, Bucharest, Romania; Post-Doc University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute

Research Area(s):
Human Immunology
Transplantation
EBV
T cell memory
Dendritic cells

Solid organ transplantation is the treatment choice for patients with end-stage organ failure diseases. While life-long immunosuppressive drugs are given to these patients to prevent allograft rejection and promote immune tolerance, these drugs trigger unwanted side effects, such as opportunistic infections and cancers, including EBV-driven PTLD. My lab’s research interests focus on three aspects of the immune response in transplant recipients, in the effort to identify specific markers or/and pathways that predict immune quiescence, rejection or the risk for EBV complications.

Immune responses to EBV: Immune monitor EBV-specific CD8+ T cells in solid organ TX patients. Analysis of EBV-specific CD8⁺ T cell regulation by chronic EBV-cognate antigen stimulation, inhibitory molecules and gc helper cytokines. Cellular and molecular assessment of T cell exhaustion vs effector T cell signatures.

Immune responses to alloantigens: Assess the role of Tregs and of memory T cells in triggering allo-immune quiescence vs allograft rejection. Investigate the impact of depleting vs non-depleting induction therapies on the phenotype and function of memory T cells in solid organ TX recipients.

DC immunobiology: study the role of pharmacologic agents in promoting DC tolerogenicity with implications for the regulation of recall- and allo-Ag specific T cell responses.

Metes Team:

Publications