Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2003

Mentor: Christoph Wuelfing
Department: Center for Immunology
Room number: NA7.500
Mail Code: 9093
Phone number: 8-7320
E-mail: christoph.wuelfing@UTSouthwestern.edu
Project title: Tools for investigating the recruitment of Nck to the T cell receptor

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects) basic research

Brief Description of Project:
T cell receptor (TCR) signal transduction starts with binding of the kinase ZAP-70 to the z-chain of the TCR (as long known and currently studied in the lab) and with binding of the adaptor protein Nck to the e-chain of the TCR (as only recently described). For the summer project Jason Bang will attempt to clone and produce protein tools to visualize and interfere with Nck recruitment in strict analogy to the approach to visualize and interfere with ZAP-70 recruitment that is already established in the lab. Successful establishment of such tools will allow an investigation of the relative contributions of ZAP-70 and Nck recruitment in TCR-mediated signal transduction.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Mentor for the summer internship of Kenneth Chen 2002

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