Revati Masilamani

B.Tech., Anna University
Understanding Dendritic Cell Regulation of Peripheral Tolerance in Polyclonal T Cell Repertoires
presented by Michel C. Nussenzweig

Revati was born and educated in India, where she received her bachelor’s degree from the Anna University in Madras. She came to Rockefeller with an interest in immunology and infectious diseases and joined my laboratory to work on dendritic cell biology, focusing on trying to understand the role of these cells in maintaining immune tolerance in the steady state.

Revati initially worked with another graduate student, Daniel Hawiger, on developing a method for specifically targeting antigens to dendritic cells in situ in order to understand the function of these cells in the organism.

Together they developed a way of engineering monoclonal antibodies to dendritic cells so they could carry specific antigens to these cells in vivo. Her work showed that antigen delivery to dendritic cells in the steady state leads to profound T cell tolerance by a variety of different mechanisms. However, all of the initial work on dendritic cell-induced tolerance in vivo done by Revati was performed using transgenic T cells, since these cells are easy to track and characterize. As a critical follow-up to try to further understand the tolerance problem, Revati has characterized the tolerance response in intact mice with a diverse T cell repertoire. These experiments have important potential implications for the development of antigen-specific immune therapies in a variety of conditions like allergy, arthritis and lupus that involve excess immune activation.

In addition to her work in the laboratory, Revati has also found time to take advantage of New York and her passion for dance. She has won prizes as a performer of the Indian classical dance form called Bharatanatyam. Revati will take some well-deserved time at home to visit with her parents before pursuing postdoctoral research in microbiology.