Adrián E. Morelli, M.D., Ph.D.

Adrián E. Morelli, M.D., Ph.D.

Contact

Office: E1513 BSTWR

Lab: BSTWR

Ph: 412-624-2193

Fax: 412-624-1172

morelli@imap.pitt.edu

Education

  • M.D. - University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Ph.D. - University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Residence (Pathology) - University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Academic Affiliation

  • Professor, Department of Surgery
  • Professor, Department of Immunology

About Research

The main work of our laboratory is to investigate the function of professional Ag-presenting cells, in particular dendritic cells of the immune system, during transplant rejection and transplant tolerance / immune-suppression. The better understanding of the role of dendritic cells in transplantation could lead to the development of novel dendritic cell-based therapies to promote donor-specific tolerance/immune-suppression in transplant recipients, one of the final goals in transplantation.

Selected Publications

Montecalvo A, AT Larregina, WJ Shufesky, D Beer Stolz, MLG Sullivan, JM Karlsson, CJ Baty, GA Gibson, G Erdos, Z Wang, J Milosevic, O Tkacheva, SJ Divito, R Jordan, J Lyons-Weiler, SC Watkins, and AE Morelli. Mechanism of transfer of functional microRNAs between mouse dendritic cells via exosomes. Blood, 119:756-766, 2012.

Wang Z, Divito SJ, Shufesky WJ, Sumpter T, Wang H, Tkacheva OA, Wang W, Liu C, Larregina AT, and AE Morelli. Dendritic cell (DC) therapies in transplantation revisited: Deletion of conventional DCs deters the effect of therapeutic tolerogenic DCs. Am J Transplant, 2012, in press.

Divito, S.J., A. Montecalvo, Z. Wang, W.J. Shufesky, G. Erdos, A.T. Larregina, and A.E. Morelli. Endogenous dendritic cells mediate the effects of intravenously injected therapeutic immunosuppressive dendritic cells in transplantation. Blood 116:2694-2705, 2010.

Wang, Z., Shufesky W.J., Montecalvo A., Divito S.J., Larregina A.T. and Morelli A.E. In situ-targeting of dendritic cells with donor-derived apoptotic cells restrains indirect allorecognition and ameliorates allograft vasculopathy. PLoS One 4:e4940, 2009.

Perone M.J., Bertera S., Shufesky W.J., Divito S.J., Montecalvo A., Mathers A.R., Larregina A.T., Pang M., Seth N., Wucherpfenning K.W., Trucco M., Baum L.G. and Morelli A.E. Suppression of autoimmune diabetes by soluble galectin-1. J. Immunol. 182:2641-2653, 2009.

Montecalvo A., Shufesky W.J., Beer Stolz D., Sullivan M.G., Wang Z., Divito S., Papworth G.D., Watkins S.C., Robbins P.D., Larregina A.T. and Morelli A.E. Exosomes as a short-range mechanism to spread alloantigen between dendritic cells during T-cell allorecognition. J. Immunol. 180:3081-3090, 2008.

Morelli A.E. and Thomson A.W. Tolerogenic dendritic cells and the quest for transplant tolerance. Nature Rev. Immunol. 7:610-621, 2007.

Perone M.J., Bertera S., Tawadrous Z.S., Shufesky J. W., Piganelli J.D., Baum L.G., Trucco M. and Morelli A.E. Dendritic cells expressing transgenic galectin-1 delay onset of autoimmune diabetes in mice. J. Immunol, 177: 5278-5289, 2006.

Wang Z., Larregina A.T., Shufesky W.J Perone M.J., Montecalvo, A., Zahorchak A.F., Thomson A.W., and Morelli A.E. Use of the inhibitory effect of apoptotic cells on dendritic cells to prolong graft survival through deletion of anti-donor T cells and generation of regulatory cells. Am. J. Transplant. 6:1297-1311, 2006.

Larregina A.T.*, Morelli A.E.* (* first co-authors), Spencer L.A., Logar A.J., Watkins S.C., Thomson A.W., and Falo L.D. Dermal-resident CD14+ cells differentiate into Langerhans cells. Nature Immunol. 2:1151-1158, 2001.

Complete Publications Listing

Research Interests

  • Immunology - Role of dendritic cells in peripheral tolerance and transplantation. Use of dendritic cells that have interacted with donor apoptotic cells or exosomes to prolong graft survival. Galectin-1. Human skin dendritic cells.
  • Gene Therapy - Generation of recombinant viral vectors encoding immuno-regulatory molecules to prolong graft survival. Effect of recombinant viral vectors on dendritic cells.