Michael Farrar, PhD

Dr. Farrar's research is focused in three broad areas: B-cell development in the bone marrow and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the developmental pathway of T regulatory cells, and cancer immunotherapy.  Farrar and his colleagues made a transgenic mouse that expresses a weakly constitutively active form of a transcription factor called STAT5b in B cells and T cells. Farrar's STAT5b transgenic mice also show a major expansion of CD4-positive and FoxP3-positive regulatory T cells (Tregs), which provided the basis for a second research thrust.  Farrar and his colleagues are employing a vaccination strategy to see whether it is possible to boost the immune response and prolong survival in mice and ultimately in humans following chemotherapy.