Speaker Profile
Nicole Baumgarth

Nicole Baumgarth DVM, PhD

Pathology, Immunology and Microbiology
Davis, California, United States of America

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Dr. Baumgarth is a Professor of Immunology at the Dept. of Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology and the Center for Comparative Medicine, University of California, Davis. Dr. Baumgarth’s research encompasses studies on the regulation of immune responses to infections and B cell biology. Dr. Baumgarth received her veterinary degree and her Ph.D. from the School of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany. She then conducted post-doctoral studies in Australia and at Stanford University. In 2000 she set up her own lab at the University of California, Davis, at the Center for Comparative Medicine, then under the directorship of Dr. Stephen Barthold, with whom she began to collaborate.

Dr. Baumgarth has been continuously funded by the NIH for her studies on the regulation of B cell and B cell subset responses. She is also interested in the regulation and function of natural IgM, a product of innate-like B-1 cells. Dr. Baumgarth’s laboratory investigates these topics using mouse models to two very different pathogens and immune responses: Acute influenza virus infection, an infection that fully resolves and induces highly protective and long-lived B cell-mediated immunity, and B cell responses to Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterial spirochete and the causative agent of Lyme disease.

Her laboratory is investigating how infection-induced inflammatory signals shape B cell response quality to induce long-lasting local and systemic immunity to influenza. Her studies on Borrelia Burgdorfer infection of mice have shown a profound dysregulation in the T-dependent B cell responses after infection, explaining the establishment of bacterial persistence for the life of the mouse. Her current studies are focused on determining whether appropriate activation of CD4 T cells could overcome the immunological defects observed following infection with this pathogen and lead to bacterial clearance either alone or in conjunction with antibiotic treatments.
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