In The News

• 7/17/2009 - San Diego Union Tribune Front Page
  Local Researchers Find Key to Vaccines
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• 7/17/2009 - National Public Radio: Talk of the Nation-Science Friday
  Gene Ignites Antibody Production (audio)
• 7/17/2009 - KPBS Public Broadcasting
  S.D. Scientists Discover the Gene Trigger for Antibodies
  
• 7/17/2009 - North County Times
  BIOTECH: Key to long-term immune response discovered:
  La Jolla Institute scientists' work could lead to better vaccines
  
  
• A research team led by the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology has identified the specific gene which triggers the body to produce disease-fighting antibodies -- a seminal finding that clarifies the exact molecular steps taken by the body to mount an antibody defense against viruses and other pathogens.  The finding, published online today in the prestigious journal Science, has major implications for the development of new and more effective vaccines.  The La Jolla Institute's Shane Crotty, Ph.D., was the lead scientist on the team, which also included researchers from Yale University.
  
  "The finding is enormous in terms of its long-term benefit to science and society as a whole because it illuminates a pivotal piece of the vaccine development puzzle  -- that is, ‘what is the molecular switch that tells the body to create antibodies?'  Dr. Crotty has pinpointed the BCL6 gene and, in doing so, has answered a critical question that has long been sought by the scientific community," said Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D., president & scientific director of the La Jolla Institute, a nonprofit biomedical research institute.  Dr. Kronenberg said this knowledge opens the door to developing ways to boost antibody production, thereby creating stronger and more effective vaccines.
  
  
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