Pitt Pediatrics congratulates Melissa Kane, PhD for her recent publication in PNAS titled “TLR7-independent control of retroviral infection”. Kane is an assistant professor of Pediatrics 
in the division of Infectious Diseases and member i4Kids and the Richard King Mellon Foundation Institute.
Vaccine design requires an understanding of how effective, pathogen-specific immune responses are initiated. Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) is the only innate immune sensor currently known to link retroviral detection to adaptive immune responses.
In their research, Kane and the team have two mice with different genetic backgrounds that have antibody responses against retroviruses without TLR7, revealing previously unknown pathways. Revealing this information adds an additional route for stimulation of protective immunity.
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