Department of Medicine Faculty

Academic Interests

Dr. Alegre is interested in T cell tolerance. She studies peripheral mechanisms that contribute to inhibiting T cell activation such as CD4+/CD25+ regulatory T cells and surface receptors that limit T cell expansion (CTLA-4 and PD-1). She has shown that cross linking or over expression of CTLA-4 can reduce allograft rejection and prevent autoimmunity in animal models. She is currently studying the role of NF- B activation in T cells in autoimmunity models.

Representative Publications

1. Subudhi SK, Zhou P, Yerian LM, Chin RK, Lo JC, Anders RA, Sun Y, Chen L, Wang Y, Alegre ML*, Fu YX*. B7-H1 costimulation promotes T cell-mediated autoimmune diabetes and islet transplantation rejection. J. Clin. Invest., 113:694-700, 2004 (* co-last authors).
2. Fallarino F, Grohmann U, Hwang KW, Orabona C, Vacca C, Bianchi R, Belladonna ML, Fioretti MC, Alegre ML, Puccetti P. Modulation of tryptophan catabolism by regulatory T cells. Nature Immunology, 4:1206-1212, 2003.
3. Zhou P, Hwang KW, Palucki DA, Kim O, Newell KA, Fu YX, Alegre ML. Secondary lymphoid organs are important but not absolutely required for allograft responses. Am. J. Transplant., 3:359-366, 2003.
4. Zhou P, Hwang. KW, Palucki DA, Guo Z, Boothby M, Newell KA, Alegre ML. Impaired NF-kB activation permits tolerance to primary heart allografts and secondary skin grafts. Am. J. Transplant., 3:139-147, 2003.
5. Hwang KW, Sweatt WB, Brown IE, Blank C, Gajewski TF, Bluestone JA, Alegre ML. CUTTING EDGE: Targeted ligation of CTLA-4 in vivo by membrane-bound anti-CTLA-4 antibody prevents rejection of allogeneic cells. J. Immunol., 169:633-637, 2002.