Man smiling for headshot

Duane Wesemann, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Medicine – Harvard University Medical School

Education

  • M.D./Ph.D.
    University of Alabama

Affiliations

  • Harvard University Medical School
  • Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Mechanisms of IgE expression dynamics on IgE B cell function

Duane Wesemann is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. His laboratory uses mouse genetics, human studies, cellular biology, single cell transcriptomics, and computation to elucidate underlying features and elasticity of antibody recognition capacity. They study the dynamic regulation, functional significance, and evolutionary implications/origins of the anticipatory naïve antibody repertoire and its somatically evolving counterpart in germinal centers. Findings from these projects have paradigm-shifting potential for fundamental immunology and are relevant to infectious disease, vaccinology, allergy, and autoimmunity.

Duane Wesemann’s research with FASI focuses on understanding how IgE is regulated. His laboratory generated mouse models, which showed that IgE is likely manufactured in large part at or near sites where CSR to IgE occurs – thus linking IgE production to stimulus locale. They are examining hypotheses in three projects. First, determining the mechanisms of IgE expression dynamics on IgE B cell function, second, elucidating mechanisms underlying IgE distribution from point of origin to effector sites, and third identifying the distribution of IgE-expressing cells in bone marrow plasma cell pools.

Featured Publications
Tong P, Granato A, Zuo T, Chaudhary N, Zuiani A, Han SS, Donthula R, Shrestha A, Sen D, Magee JM, Gallagher MP, van der Poel CE, Carroll MC, Wesemann DR. IgH isotype-specific B cell receptor expression influences B cell fate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Oct 3;114(40):E8411-E8420. PMID: 28923960