About

Janice Telfer is a Professor in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she also serves as the Undergraduate Program Director and UMass Pre-Veterinary Medicine Advisor. Her research focuses on the role of RUNX family transcription factors in immune system development and cancerous transformation. Her laboratory investigates how these transcription factors, particularly RUNX1, influence the development and proliferation of immune cells such as T cells and myeloid cells, and their involvement in diseases like acute myelogenous leukemia and pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Her work includes characterizing the regulation of gene expression by RUNX proteins, understanding their impact on thymocyte development, and exploring mechanisms underlying immune cell differentiation and proliferation.

Research topics

• Cell biology
• Biology
• Molecular biology
• Genetics
• Immunology
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Defining the caprine γδ T cell WC1 multigenic array and evaluation of its expressed sequences and gene structure conservation among goat breeds and relative to cattle

  Immunogenetics · 2022-02-09 · 7 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Durable antibody and effector memory T cell responses in breastmilk from women with SARS-CoV-2

  Frontiers in Immunology · 2022-09-12 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background Given that only 25% of pregnant women elect to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection remains an important route of conferring protective passive immunity to breastfed infants of mothers who are not vaccinated. Methods We enrolled 30 lactating participants between December 2020 and March 2021 who had a positive PCR-test and their first COVID-19 symptoms within the previous 21 days. Participants were asked to provide serial bilateral milk samples at 12 timepoints (~ every 3 days) over a period of 35 days. A second set of samples was collected at least four months after the beginning of the first set. Participants also were asked to provide their dried blood spots and infant stool samples. All samples were tested for receptor-binding domain (RBD)-specific immunoglobulin (Ig)A, IgG, and IgM. Milk samples were assessed for neutralizing ability against the spike protein and four SARS-CoV-2 variants: D614G, Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), and Gamma (P.1). Permeability of the breast epithelium was assessed by measuring the sodium to potassium ions (Na:K) in milk. Using flow cytometry, memory CD4 and CD8 T cells (CD45RO + and CCR7 +/- ) and mucosal-homing CD4 and CD8 T cells (CD103 + ) were determined in cells from milk expressed at 35 days and at least 4 months after their first milk donation. Results Milk antibodies from SARS-CoV-2 positive participants neutralized the spike complex. Milk from 73, 90, and 53% of participants had binding reactivities to RBD-specific IgA, IgG, and IgM, respectively. In contrast to blood spots, which showed increased levels of IgG, but not IgA or IgM, the COVID-19 response in milk was associated with a robust IgA response. Twenty-seven percent of participants had increased breast-epithelium permeability, as indicated by Na:K ≥ 0.6. The percentage of CD45RO + CCR7 - effector-memory T cells in the day ≥120 milk samples was significantly higher than day 35 samples ( P < 0.05). Conclusions Antibodies in milk from participants with recent SARS-CoV-2 infection and those who recovered can neutralize the spike complex. For the first time we show that breastmilk T cells are enriched for mucosal memory T cells, further emphasizing the passive protection against SARS-CoV-2 conferred to infants via breastmilk.

  PublisherDOI

• Assessment of Scavenger Receptor Cysteine-Rich Domain Binding to Bacteria

  Methods in molecular biology · 2021-12-06 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Identification of Leptospiral Protein Antigens Recognized by WC1 ⁺ γδ T Cell Subsets as Target for Development of Recombinant Vaccines

  Infection and Immunity · 2021-10-25 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access

  Pathogenic Leptospira species cause leptospirosis, a neglected zoonotic disease recognized as a global public health problem. It is also the cause of the most common cattle infection that results in major economic losses due to reproductive problems. γδ T cells play a role in the protective immune response in livestock species against Leptospira , while human γδ T cells also respond to Leptospira .

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Subpopulations of swine γδ T cells defined by TCRγ and WC1 gene expression

  Developmental & Comparative Immunology · 2021 · 28 citations

  • Biology
  • Genetics
  • Molecular biology

  γδ T-cell populations differed in their representation in various organs and tissues, presumably at least partially reflective of different ligand specificities for their receptors.

  PublisherDOI

• Characterization of the domestic goat γδ T cell receptor gene loci and gene usage

  Immunogenetics · 2021-01-21 · 15 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Transcriptional programming and gene regulation in WC1+ γδ T cell subpopulations

  Molecular Immunology · 2021-12-24 · 9 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Identification of leptospiral protein antigens recognized by WC1 ⁺ <i>γδ</i> T cell subsets as target for development of recombinant vaccines

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2021-07-17

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract Pathogenic Leptospira species cause leptospirosis, a neglected zoonotic disease recognized as a global public health problem. It is also the cause of the most common cattle infection that results in major economic losses due to reproductive problems. γδ T cells play a role in the protective immune response in livestock species against Leptospira while human γδ T cells also respond to Leptospira . Thus, activation of γδ T cells has emerged as a potential component for optimization of vaccine strategies. Bovine γδ T cells proliferate and produce IFN-γ in response to vaccination with inactivated leptospires and this response is mediated by a specific subpopulation of the WC1-bearing γδ T cells. WC1 molecules are members of the group B scavenger receptor cysteine rich (SRCR) superfamily and are composed of multiple SRCR domains, of which particular extracellular domains act as ligands for Leptospira . Since WC1 molecules function as both pattern recognition receptors and γδ TCR coreceptors, the WC1 system has been proposed as a novel target to engage γδ T cells. Here, we demonstrate the involvement of leptospiral protein antigens in the activation of WC1 + γδ T cells and identified two leptospiral outer membrane proteins able to interact directly with them. Interestingly, we show that the protein-specific γδ T cell response is composed of WC1.1 + and WC1.2 + subsets, although a greater number of WC1.1 + γδ T cells respond. Identification of protein antigens will enhance our understanding of the role γδ T cells play in the leptospiral immune response and in recombinant vaccine development.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• γδ T cells in artiodactyls: Focus on swine

  Developmental & Comparative Immunology · 2021 · 35 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Biology
  • Immunology
  • Cell biology
  PublisherDOI

• Gamma Delta TCR and the WC1 Co-Receptor Interactions in Response to Leptospira Using Imaging Flow Cytometry and STORM

  Frontiers in Immunology · 2021-07-28 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  The WC1 cell surface family of molecules function as hybrid gamma delta (γδ) TCR co-receptors, augmenting cellular responses when cross-linked with the TCR, and as pattern recognition receptors, binding pathogens. It is known that following activation, key tyrosines are phosphorylated in the intracytoplasmic domains of WC1 molecules and that the cells fail to respond when WC1 is knocked down or, as shown here, when physically separated from the TCR. Based on these results we hypothesized that the colocalization of WC1 and TCR will occur following cellular activation thereby allowing signaling to ensue. We evaluated the spatio-temporal dynamics of their interaction using imaging flow cytometry and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy. We found that in quiescent γδ T cells both WC1 and TCR existed in separate and spatially stable protein domains (protein islands) but after activation using Leptospira , our model system, that they concatenated. The association between WC1 and TCR was close enough for fluorescence resonance energy transfer. Prior to concatenating with the WC1 co-receptor, γδ T cells had clustering of TCR-CD3 complexes and exclusion of CD45. γδ T cells may individually express more than one variant of the WC1 family of molecules and we found that individual WC1 variants are clustered in separate protein islands in quiescent cells. However, the islands containing different variants merged following cell activation and before merging with the TCR islands. While WC1 was previously shown to bind Leptospira in solution, here we showed that Leptospira bound WC1 proteins on the surface of γδ T cells and that this could be blocked by anti-WC1 antibodies. In conclusion, γδ TCR, WC1 and Leptospira interact directly on the γδ T cell surface, further supporting the role of WC1 in γδ T cell pathogen recognition and cellular activation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Runx-mediated Silencing of CD4 Transcription

  NSF · $674k · 2006–2012

Frequent coauthors

• Cynthia L. Baldwin

  46 shared

• Alexandria Gillespie

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  15 shared

• Haoting Hsu

  Champions Oncology (United States)

  12 shared

• Alehegne Yirsaw

  Tuskegee University

  10 shared

• Abdul H. Fauq

  9 shared

• Payal Damani‐Yokota

  NYU Langone Health

  9 shared

• Todd E. Golde

  Emory University

  9 shared

• Barbara A. Osborne

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  8 shared

Labs

• Janice Telfer LaboratoryPI