Kristin A. Hogquist
University of Minnesota
|
Primary Section: 43, Immunology and Inflammation Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2022)
|
Biosketch
Kristin Hogquist is an immunologist recognized for her work on T cell development in the thymus. In particular, she studies the selection and maturation events that follow the production of a functional T cell receptor, and how this leads to an immune system that is functional and safe. Hogquist was born in Duluth, Minnesota, and grew up in Sandstone Minnesota. She graduated from the College of St. Catherine with a degree in Biology and obtained her Ph.D. in Immunology from Washington University in St. Louis. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle, she returned to her home state and joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota, where she is the Vice Chair for research in Pathology, and Associate Director of the Center for Immunology. Hogquist is active in the American Association of Immunologists and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Research Interests
The Hogquist lab has a long-standing interest in how the thymus produces T cells that are functional and safe. They identified self-peptide ligands that stimulate positive and negative selection of T cells, and studied their affinities for the T cell receptor when bound to MHC, providing evidence for an affinity model of thymic selection. They also developed highly physiologic transgenic model systems to study positive and negative selection and report TCR signaling in vivo. Their work defined the timing and location of major selection steps in the thymus, and detailed how cells leave the organ. The Hogquist lab has explored the selection of T cells that avidly bind self-ligands, and thereby function to promote immune homeostasis, including regulatory T cells, natural killer T cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes. They identified the major thymic antigen presented cells and are defining their unique roles in T cell selection.
