Patricia S. Grace, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
- Department of Immunology
- Center for Vaccine Research
Education & Training
- Postdoc: Ragon Institute of MGH, Harvard, and MIT & Harvard School of Public Health, 2024
- New York Univeristy, Ph.D., Molecular Oncology and Immunology, 2016
- Mary Baldwin Univeristy, B.S., Chemistry, 2007
Research Interest Summary
Research Interests
Tuberculosis (TB), the disease caused by the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains a global public health burden that takes many lives each year. Current vaccines do not prevent TB disease in all indviiduals. And an incomplete knowledge about bacterial vulnerabilities that can be targeted by immunity impedes the development of needed new therapies and vaccines. Our work has demonstrated that antibody responses to Mtb infection can coordinate protective immunity. Canonically viewed as antigen specific effectors that neutralize extracellular virus via the antigen binding (Fab) domain, the antibody constant (or Fc-) domain also contributes to pathogen control via interactions with complement or Fc receptors (FcR) expressed on immune cells. The Fc domain is criticial for antibody-mediated control of Mtb infeciton, and the cellular immune response to Mtb is compirsed of both meyloid and adaptive immune cells that express FcRs, each with distinct potential to integrate antibody Fc-signals and exert bacterial infection control. The Grace lab uses human and mouse models to dissect the cellular responses to antibodies with the hope of idenitfying novel anitbody-mediated functions that could change TB outcomes.
Publications
Grace PS, Peters J, Sixsmith J, Lu R, Vickers A, Fenderson BL, Luedeman C, Slein MD, Irvine EB, Wallace A, Cavacini LA, Choudhary A, Pinter A, Proulx MK, Sasseti CM, Bryson B, Fortune SM, Alter G. Antibody-Fab and -Fc features promote Mycobacterium tuberculosis restriction. In press, Immunity. 2025 Jun 10;58(6):1586-1597.e5. PMID: 40449485. 9.
Irvine EB, Nikolov A, Kahn M, Peters JM, Lu R, Sixsmith J, Wallace A, Schenider M, Shin S, Karpinski W, Hsaio JC, van Woundenbergh E, Casadevall A, Bryson BD, Cavacini LA, Grace PS, Fortune SM, Alter GA. Fc-engineered antibodies leverage neutrophils to drive control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nature Microbiology. 2024 Sep;9(9):2369-2382. PubMed PMID: 39174703
Grace PS, Gunn BM, Lu LL. Engineering the supernatural: monoclonal antibodies for challenging infectious diseases. Current Opinion in Biotechnology. 2022 Dec:78:102818. PubMed PMID: 36242952.
Grace PS, Dolatshahi S, Lu LL, Cain A, Palmieri F, Petron L, Fortune SM, Ottenhoff THM, Lauffenburger D, Goletti D, Joosten SA, Alter G. Antibody subclass and glycosylation shift following effective TB treatment. Frontiers Immunology. 2021 Jul 5:12:679973. PubMed PMID: 34290702
Lu LL, Chung AW, Rosebrock TR, Ghebremichael M, Yu WH, Grace PS, Schoen MK, Tafesse F, Martin C, Leung V, Mahan AE, Sips M, Kumar MP, Tedesco J, Robinson H, Tkachenko E, Draghi M, Freedberg KJ, Streeck H, Suscovich TJ, Lauffenburger DA, Restrepo BI, Day C, Fortune SM, Alter G. (2016) A Functional Role for Antibodies in Tuberculosis. Cell