Bruce Walcheck
,
Credentials
PhD

Professor, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences Postdoctoral fellow
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals PhD
Immunology, Montana State University
BS, Microbiology, Montana State University
Biography

Research Summary

Our research interests pertain to leukocyte biology with a current focus on natural killer (NK) cells. Various receptors expressed on the surface of leukocytes that are critical for their function can be rapidly downregulated in expression upon cell activation by “ectodomain shedding”. This process is primarily mediated by the membrane-associated metalloprotease ADAM17. Ectodomain shedding operates in part as a negative feedback mechanism to restrain leukocyte function and ADAM17 serves as a broad-acting regulatory checkpoint that controls NK cell activity in a polyfunctional manner. Our goal is to manipulate this process to enhance NK cell function in killing tumor cells and virus-infected cells. 
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