Lisa Wagar, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, UC Irvine | Wagar Lab
Finalist Essay: Deciphering immune responses to viruses and vaccines using human tonsil organoids
Abstract:
Recent advances in organoid technologies have enabled a deeper understanding of the complex cell-cell interactions occurring within human tissues.
Adaptive immune responses to vaccines, infectious diseases, and other antigens rely on many cell types dynamically organizing within lymph nodes and other lymphoid tissues.
Dr. Wagar and her team recently developed an immune organoid platform derived from primary tonsil tissues, a lymph node-like secondary lymphoid tissue, to support in vitro analysis of human adaptive immunity.
In the future, it is their hope that the knowledge gained from in vitro studies of human adaptive immunity will lead to improved vaccination and immunotherapeutic strategies.
About Lisa Wagar:
Lisa Wagar received a BSc from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and a PhD from the University of Toronto.
After completing her postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, Dr. Wagar started her lab in 2020 in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of California, Irvine where she is currently an Assistant Professor.
Her research focuses on translational human immunology and the use of organoids to understand the complex interactions that occur between immune cells upon vaccination and infection in humans.