Clinical Focus

• Immunology and Rheumatology
• Rheumatology

Professional Education

Internet Links

• Strober Lab

Industry Relationships

Stanford is committed to ethical and transparent interactions with our industry partners. It is our policy to disclose payments of $5,000 or more, equity valued at $5,000 or more in a publicly traded company, or any equity in a privately held company, to physicians and scientists employed by Stanford University from companies or other commercial entities with which they interact as part of their professional activities. View Full Information

Current Research Interests

Our interests are in the area of cellular immunology, and the regulatory interactions between subpopulations of immune cells. In particular, we are interested in the identification, function, and molecular mechanisms by which some subpopulations of lymphocytes amplify the immune response and some suppress it. Investigation into interactions of the cells during the immune response to organ and bone marrow transplants and in autoimmune disease is a major focus of the laboratory research. Developing therapeutic strategies for organ transplantation and autoimmunity based on these principles is a major goal. Specific areas of research are as follows: (i) Immune tolerance to organ and bone marrow transplants: Immune tolerance is recognized to be the paralysis of the immune system in its response to a given antigen, the development of anergy, or antigen-specific suppressor cells. Our research programs are studying these mechanisms at the cellular and molecular levels in laboratory animals and humans that are made tolerant to foreign organ or bone marrow transplants. (ii) Mechanisms of autoimmunity: Many autoimmune diseases represent a breakdown of immune tolerance to self-antigens. The mechanisms by which 1) animals develop tolerance to self during ontogeny, 2) tolerance is broken in adult life resulting in autoimmune diseases, and 3) tolerance can be reestablished after the development of autoimmune disease are the subjects of investigation. Our laboratory is involved in identifying those cells involved in the induction and maintenance of immune tolerance with regard to their surface receptors, effector functions, and the nature of secreted molecules which mediate their function.

Clinical Trials

• Allogeneic Transplantation Using TL1 & ATG for Older Patients with Hematologic Malignancies Recruiting
• Combined Blood Stem Cell and HLA Haplotype Match Living Donor Kidney Transplantation Recruiting
• Post T-plant Infusion of Allogeneic Cytokine Induced Killer Cells as Consolidate Therapy in MDS/ MPD Recruiting
• Allogeneic Transplantation From Related Haploidentical Donors in Older Patients with Indolent Hematologic Malignancies Completed
• Donor Peripheral Stem Cell Transplant in Treating Patients With Hematolymphoid Malignancies Not yet recruiting

Publications

• CD8+CD44(hi) but not CD4+CD44(hi) memory T cells mediate potent graft antilymphoma activity without GVHD. Dutt S, Baker J, Kohrt HE, Kambham N, Sanyal M, Negrin RS, Strober S. Blood. 2011; 117 (11): 3230-9
• Donor immunization with WT1 peptide augments antileukemic activity after MHC-matched bone marrow transplantation. Kohrt HE, Müller A, Baker J, Goldstein MJ, Newell E, Dutt S, Czerwinski D, Lowsky R, Strober S. Blood. 2011; 118 (19): 5319-29
• Interactions between NKT cells and Tregs are required for tolerance to combined bone marrow and organ transplants. Hongo D, Tang X, Dutt S, Nador RG, Strober S. Blood. 2011
• Selective resistance of CD44hi T cells to p53-dependent cell death results in persistence of immunologic memory after total body irradiation. Yao Z, Jones J, Kohrt H, Strober S. J Immunol. 2011; 187 (8): 4100-8
• Translational studies in hematopoietic cell transplantation: treatment of hematologic malignancies as a stepping stone to tolerance induction. Strober S, Spitzer TR, Lowsky R, Sykes M. Semin Immunol. 2011; 23 (4): 273-81