The Division of Clinical Immunopathology/Tissue Typing
Introduction
The Division of Clinical Immunopathology and Tissue Typing offers a wide range of clinical testing procedures. The diverse scope of this laboratory's services encompasses patient evaluation for atopy, immunodeficiences, acute and chronic infections, autoimmune disorders, complement function, and suitability as allograft recipients. The division also provides a comprehensive consultation service in all these areas. Its mission, within the health center environment, is to provide the highest quality of patient care through innovative testing and strict quality control and quality assurance. Academic excellence is fostered in an environment devoted to teaching both residents and medical students, and to the pursuit of basic and clinically oriented research in immunology.
Laboratory Services
The division offers a wide range of clinical immunologic testing procedures. These include serologic analyses for evaluation of infectious diseases, electrophoretic analysis of serum, urine and cerebrospinal fluids for qualitative immunoglobulin abnormalities, isoelectric focusing for Pi typing, nephelometric quantitation of major serum protein species, quantitative and functional analyses of complement, immunoglobulin quantitation, RAST testing for allergies, detection of autoantibodies in the evaluation of autoimmunity, Western blotting for diagnosis of HIV infection and Lyme disease, serologic tissue typing and cross matching prior to allografting, and the application of molecular biology techniques to the analysis of HLA polymorphism.
Training and Teaching Activities
The division is strongly committed to teaching basic and clinical immunology to undergraduate biology majors, graduate students, medical students, pathology residents, postdoctoral fellows, and clinicians participating in continuing medical education programs. All pathology residents participate in an initial two-month rotation in the division. During this time they become acquainted with analytic methodologies, acquire expertise in immunofluorescence and serology, interpretation of test results, pitfalls, and expected follow-up. They prepare, with the assistance of one of the staff, cases for presentation at the weekly pathology resident clinical case conference. Many residents return for an elective rotation in their final year to update their skills.
Research Activities
All professional staff of the division are involved with research and development, frequently in collaboration with members of other departments at UPMC, or at other universities, e.g., Carnegie-Mellon University. Current research projects include:
- Brain areas activated by stress and neurochemical regulation of lymphocytes.
- Psychosocial events that influence susceptibility to infectious disease.
- Use of exercise as a buffer of stressor induced immune alterations.
- Use of stress reduction as a means of modifying the course of autoimmune disease.
- Seroepidemiology and pathobiology of hepatitis and HIV virus infections.
- Tandem mass spectrometry for sequencing target antigens during humoral rejection of xenografts,
- Computer-assisted scanning of Western blots.
- Application of molecular biology techniques to HLA typing.
Professional Staff
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