Dr. Shinohara is an immunologist who works on innate immune signaling in autoimmunity, neuroinflammation, and fungal infections. She has studied osteopontin (OPN) for two decades. She and her colleagues identified that OPN can be extracellular (sOPN) and intracellular (iOPN). She also initially identified that iOPN’s functions as a scaffold protein in signal transduction of multiple pattern recognition receptors. Her group generated a new mouse model to study OPN isoform-specific function. Dr. Shinohara is is an expert on sOPN-specific protective roles in aGvHD in the mouse model.

In this webinar, Dr. Shinohara will discuss how:

  • Osteopontin (OPN) expression is upregulated in various inflammatory conditions.
  • OPN is secreted by cells (sOPN), but alternative translation generates an isoform, intracellular OPN (iOPN).
  • Mouse model suggests that sOPN generated by CD4+ T cells protects hosts in acute graft versus host disease (aGvHD) – Approaches include precision-cut intestinal slices (PCIS)
  • sOPN protects intestinal epithelial cells from cell death and alters microbiome.