Matthew J. O'Shaughnessy

Year Entered: 1998 

Degrees Received:
B.S., Science Pre-professional, University of Notre Dame, 1997
Ph.D., Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology Graduate Program, 2006
M.D., University of Minnesota Medical School, 2008

Residency Program:
Urology, University of Minnesota Medical School

Honors and Awards:
American Red Cross Transfusion Sciences Award, May 2004
University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, September 2004-May 2005
NIH Pre-doctoral Immunology Training Grant (Declined)
University of Minnesota BMT Research Fund Grant, Jan 2004-Jan 2005
Masonic-Dietz Family Travel Award, May 2003
2001 Children's Cancer Research Fund Research Grant
2002 Children's Cancer Research Fund Research Grant
MMF/Medical Alley Award 1998

Thesis Advisor: Bruce Blazar, M.D., Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology Graduate Program

Thesis Research: 

My current research is aimed at examining the biochemical signaling requirements for induction of immune tolerance with the goal of preventing graft-versus-host disease. I use an ex vivo murine model to induce alloantigen-specific tolerance in CD4+ T cells. To accomplish this, I utilize small molecule inhibitors of signaling pathways, mice deficient in key signaling molecules, and other means of modulating signal transduction ex vivo in CD4+ T cells. Additionally, I am able to examine the specific mechanisms of tolerance induction (ie. deletion vs. anergy) by tracking both alloreactive TCR transgenic and non-alloreactive TCR transgenic CD4+ T cells. Positive results from these studies can be readily applied to pre-clinical trials with human cells.

Publications:

O'Shaughnessy MJ, Chen ZM, Gramaglia I, Taylor PA, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Vogtenhuber C, Palmer E, Grader-Beck T, Boussiotis VA, Blazar BR. Elevation of intracellular cyclic AMP in alloreactive CD4(+) T cells induces alloantigen-specific tolerance that can prevent GVHD lethality in vivo. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2007;13:530-542.

Serafini M, Dylla SJ, Oki M, Heremans Y, Tolar J, Jiang Y, Buckley SM, Pelacho B, Burns TC, Frommer S, Rossi DJ, Bryder D, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, O'Shaughnessy MJ, Nelson-Holte M, Fine GC, Weissman IL, Blazar BR, Verfaillie CM. Hematopoietic reconstitution by multipotent adult progenitor cells: precursors to long-term hematopoietic stem cells. J Exp Med. 2007;204:129-139.

Sun K, Welniak LA, Panoskaltisis-Mortari A, O'Shaughnessy MJ, Liu H, Barao I, Riordan W, Sitcheran R, Wysocki C, Serody JS, Blazar BR, Sayers TJ, Murphy WJ. Inhibition of acute graft-versus-host disease with retention of graft-versus-tumor effects by the proteasome inhibitor Bortezomib. PNAS. 2004;101:8120-8125.

Chen ZM, O'Shaughnessy MJ*, Gramaglia I, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Murphy WJ, Narula S, Roncarolo MG, Blazar BR. IL-10 and TGF-beta induce alloreactive CD4+CD25- T cells to acquire regulatory cell function. Blood. 2003;101: 5076-5083. 
*co-first author