Elucidating the role of effector caspases in immune development using lentiviral RNAi

Caspases play an important role in apoptosis, or programmed cell death. In particular, three highly related effector caspases, caspases-3, -6, and -7, translate upstream death signals into the physical manifestations of apoptosis by proteolytically cleaving structural and enzymatic targets. However, it is not clear what specific role each individual caspase plays in apoptosis or whether interaction between them is important. We used RNA interference (RNAi) to examine their roles in immune cells. RNAi has revolutionized the field of mammalian genetics by expediting the interrogation of gene function. Endogenous genes are targeted for silencing by the introduction of double stranded RNAs, known as short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), through a mechanism that is well conserved across many species. While this technique has been used successfully in tissue culture experiments, our studies focused on extending the use of RNAi into immune cells. Our initial experiments demonstrated that primary T cells were capable of RNAi-based gene silencing, but were difficult to introduce siRNAs into. Therefore, more robust techniques for the stable and efficient introduction of siRNAs into primary immune cells and animal models were required.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Biology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Dillon, Christopher P

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Phillip Allen Sharp.

• Biology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34196
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34196

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34196