Workshop on therapeutic applications and other implications of anti-Gal

Tuesday September 6, 2022, from 1:45 pm - 4:30 pm
Room 107 Bond Life Sciences Center

   

Dr. Uri Galili discovered the anti-Gal antibody in 1984. In the 38 years that followed, he, along with collaborators across the landscape of modern life science, have elucidated the astonishing evolutionary, immunological, physiological, and clinical range of anti-Gal’s implications in more than 100 publications.

Dr. Galili will be visiting the University of Missouri on September 6 and 7, 2022. This workshop is being offered as part of his visit to campus. The workshop will be divided roughly into four ~40-minute segments focusing on four topics within Galili’s orbit of research, some chosen by Galili himself and some by campus scientists. A few campus researchers will be scheduled to participate in each segment.

Anyone in the MU campus community is invited to participate in any or all of the segments. You can learn more about his visit, including two public lectures, at this website.

2021 Article on Future Therapies

Schedule of segments (last updated 8/26) and other information:

Segment 1: 1:45 to 2:25 pm: Interaction of anti-Gal antibodies with viruses displaying α-gal epitopes 

with Zack Berndsen, Department of Biochemical Sciences; and Marc Johnson, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

  1. How effectively does anti-Gal protect humans from viruses displaying α-gal epitopes?
  2. Complement fixation, opsonization, other immune responses following anti-Gal/α-gal interaction 
  3. Processing of α-gal-displaying viruses by antigen-presenting and other immune cells
  4. Viral vaccines displaying α-gal epitopes

Segment 2: 2:25 to 3:05 pm: Future of “GalSafe” (α1,3GT knockout) pigs 

with Kevin Wells, Division of Animal Sciences

  1. Transplantation of pig organs to human patients—avoiding hyperacute rejection via natural anti-Gal antibodies and delayed rejection via anti-xenograft anti-Gal antibodies
  2. In situ humanization of porcine implants
  3. Views of the FDA on the α1,3GT knockout pigs as large experimental animal model

Segment 3, 3:05 to 3:45 pm: Some future α-gal therapies 

with Don Burke, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

  1. Conjugating α-gal to a ligand that binds a target (e.g., pathogen, tumor cell) 
  2. Autologous solid tumor vaccines presenting α-gal epitopes
  3. Injured nerve regeneration

Segment 4, 3:45 to 4:25 pm: Natural anti-Gal antibody response to gut bacterial carbohydrates

with Mark Daniels, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology; and George Smith, Division of Biological Sciences

  1. Intensity of response compared to response to other blood group carbohydrates
  2. Question of T-cell help
  3. Class switching
  4. Affinity maturation

   

About Dr. Uri Galili

Uri Galili received his PhD from the Department of Cancer Research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and after a post-doctoral fellowship at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, he returned to the Department of Hematology in the Hadassah Hospital of the Hebrew University. It was there in 1984 that he and his colleagues published the first articles describing anti-Gal antibody and alpha-gal, the blood group carbohydrate that anti-Gal recognizes. In almost all mammals, alpha-gal is abundant and anti-Gal is absent. But in catarrhine primates—old-world monkeys, apes, and humans—the reverse is true: alpha-gal is absent and anti-Gal is the most abundant antibody in circulation. That discovery has been the linchpin of an extraordinary career that has reached into foundations of medicine, immunology, transplantation biology, and physical anthropology.

For 38 years, at the University of California San Francisco (1984–1991), the Hahnemann School of Medicine (1991–1999), Rush University School of Medicine (1999–2004), the University of Massachusetts Medical School (2004–2013), and now in retirement back at Rush as volunteer adjunct professor, Galili has collaborated with colleagues from across the landscape of biomedical research, publishing over 100 articles exploring the anti-Gal antibody’s manifold implications, including especially the innovative therapeutic opportunities it has brought to light.