Brian Dizon Email and Phone Number

I am interested in the ontogeny, selection, and activation of self-reactive and polyreactive B cells and their secreted antibodies, and aspire to pursue a career in translational medicine to define the contributions of pathogenic B cell subsets in the initiation and propagation of autoimmune diseases. I pursued an MDPhD degree with the intention of focusing my career in translational medicine. I began my research training in the lab of Dr John Kearney, where I investigated the role of carbohydrate-specific T-independent B cell responses generated against antigens expressed by common bacteria. by utilizing hybridoma technology, immunoglobulin transgenic mice, and murine models of autoimmune disease and allergy, I demonstrated a critical window in neonatal life in which B cells and their secreted immunoglobulins exerted long-lasting protective effects on autoimmune and allergic disease. I decided to complete a residency in medicine-pediatrics given the need for physicians to treat children with pediatric rheumatologic diseases who were surviving into adulthood, and in the hopes of carving out a clinical niche in which I could study how exposures early in life shaped autoimmune disease into adulthood.I later completed a combined rheumatology fellowship at NIH where I could study the B cell repertoires and humoral immune responses of patient cohorts with systemic autoimmune diseases. I recently joined the lab of Dr Susan Pierce to understand the composition and functions of human B cell subsets. My most recent findings are consistent with a newly described regulatory process in B cells termed clonal redemption, in which autoreactive B cells contribute to immune responses by undergoing somatic mutations towards a foreign antigen and away from self-antigens. Currently I am currently applying the methodologies to understand how clonal redemption operates normally in vaccine responses against human papillomavirus to generate long-lasting immunity as well as functions abnormally in autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus. I hope to utilize my background in basic B cell biology and awareness of the knowledge gaps in our understanding of pediatric and adult rheumatologic diseases to explore how B cell signaling events influence systemic autoimmunity.