Janice S. Blum, PhD

Dr. Blum's research has focused on immune responsiveness in humans and its role in protective immunity to tumors and pathogens as well as predisposition to autoimmune disease.  She has a long-standing interest in promoting the advancement of research and encouraging students to engage in research opportunities.  Dr. Blum has served as a director and mentor for multiple NIH-funded training programs which supported undergraduate students, post-baccalaureate fellows, graduate and medical students, as well as postdoctoral fellows.

In the laboratory, Dr. Blum has focused on understanding how protein antigens are processed for recognition by the immune system, and the events which regulate immune responses to foreign and self proteins.  Studies by Dr. Blum's group applied cell biology and molecular approaches to examine the pathways guiding protein antigen trafficking, antigen processing and the selection of epitopes for presentation by MHC molecules. Discoveries by the Blum laboratory include work demonstrating the importance a novel thiol reductase GILT and NADPH oxidase MHC-restricted immune recognition, and a role for heat shock proteins and lysosomal membrane proteins in immune recognition by MHC class II molecules.  Studies by the Blum laboratory also have demonstrated endosomal recycling and autophagy are important pathways guiding immune responses.   Dr. Blum and her colleagues have examined how immune deficiency as well as hyper-responsiveness are regulated by these pathways.  These investigators have implications in terms of developing more efficient vaccine reagents specific for pathogens as well as tumors.  Studies by the Blum laboratory also strongly support a role for these pathways in regulating immune responses to autoantigens linked to the development of arthritis and diabetes in humans. Information from these studies has been applied identify new biomarkers for autoimmunity and inflammation, to design and test novel vaccines for promoting immunity to pathogens and tumors, and identify new targets for gene therapy to control immune responsiveness.