Ann Hill

Home

Faculty

Seminars

Grad Program

MMI Core Facility OHSU EM Core Facility

Students and Fellows

Contact Us

My laboratory investigates T cell immunity to viral infections. Our main interest is in herpesvirus immune evasion genes- how they function, and what effect this has on the immune response to the virus and the virus infective process. We use murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) as our main model. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a ubiquitous infection, infecting approximately 70% of adults in the US. CMV infects in childhood and establishes lifelong infection, usually without symptoms. Immunity to CMV occupies a surprisingly high proportion of the immune system throughout life: around 4% of CD4+ and 10% of CD8+ T cells in chronically infected people are specific for CMV, probably more than for any other virus. This high number of T cells is thought to be maintained by recurrent virus activity, which nevertheless normally remains below the threshold of detection. However, if immunity is compromised, CMV rapidly reactivates and is a main cause of morbidity in most clinically immunocompromized states. It thus appears that the chronic equilibrium between CMV and host involves a lot of activity on both virus and host sides. The long term goal of my lab is to understand this equilibrium and its consequences for the host.

Selected Recent Publications

Daniel G. Kavanagh, Marielle C. Gold, Markus Wagner, Ulrich H. Koszinowski and Ann B. Hill. The Multiple Immune-evasion Genes of Murine Cytomegalovirus Are Not Redundant: m4 and m152 Inhibit Antigen Presentation In a Complementary and Co-operative Fashion. 2001 J. Exp. Med. 194: 967-977. -Download-

Daniel G. Kavanagh, Ulrich Koszinowski and Ann B. Hill. The murine cytomegalovirus immune evasion protein m4/gp34 forms biochemically distinct complexes with class I MHC at the cell surface and in a pre-Golgi compartment. 2001 J. Immunol. 167: 3894-3902. -Download-

Gold, M.C., Munks, M.W., Wagner, M., Koszinowski, U.H., Hill, A.B.*, and Fling,S.P. The murine cytomegalovirus immunomodulatory gene m152 prevents recognition of infected cells by M45-specific CTL, but does not alter the immunodominance of the M45-specific CD8 T cell response in vivo. 2002, J. Immunol. 169: 359-65. *corresponding author. -Download-

Yewdell, J. and Hill, A.B. Viral interference with antigen presentation. 2002, Nature Immunol. 3, 1019-1025. -Download- (subscription required)

LoPiccolo, D.M., Gold, M.C., Kavanagh, D.G., Wagner, M., Koszinowski, U.H. and Hill, A.B. Effective inhibition of Kb- and Db-restricted antigen presentation in primary macrophages by murine cytomegalovirus. 2003, J. Virol. 77(1), 301-308. -Download-

Education and Experience

EDUCATION

1990	PhD, Australian National University
1979	MB, BS, University of NSW, Sydney, Australia

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2004-	Associate Professor, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, OHSU
1996-2004	Assistant Professor, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, OHSU
1995	Postdoctoral Fellowship, The Arthritis Foundation, MIT, Boston
1993	The Royal Society Travelling Fellowship to Japan
1990-94	Oxford Nuffield Dominions Medical Fellowship
1983 - 1984	Immunology Registrar, St. Vincents Hospital, Sydney
1979-82	Resident Medical Officer, Sydney Hospital, Sydney, Australia