Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
Project Title: Revealing the Biophysics of the Germinal Center Microenvironment
Award Year: 2021
Biography
Dr. Robert Abbott is a B cell immunologist interested in understanding fundamental parameters that govern germinal center B cell and memory B cell responses to complex antigens post vaccination. He completed his Ph.D. at Northeastern University in Boston in the lab of Dr. Michail Sitkovsky, where he discovered a role for hypoxia and adenosine signaling in regulating germinal center responses. In 2016, he joined Dr. Shane Crotty’s lab at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California as a postdoctoral fellow. As a postdoc, he developed new mouse B cell transfer models using HIV bnAb precursor B cells in collaboration with teams from Dr. David Nemazee and Dr. William Schief’s labs. These new model systems revealed the interdependence of B cell precursor frequency, antigen affinity, and avidity in determining successful B cell responses following vaccination. Dr. Abbott started his own lab in 2021 when he joined the Department of Pathology at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas as an assistant professor.