Samantha Elliott Kerry

 

 

 

Education and Research Experience 

 

Research Associate, Duke University (Durham, NC), February 2004-present.

Advisor: Dr. Alejandro Aballay

Current research: Role of putative c-type lectin domain-containing genes in the infection of C. elegans by Salmonella enterica.     

 

Graduate student, UNC-Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC), August 1999-January 2004. Awarded Ph.D. in May 2004

Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Frelinger

Dissertation title: Coreceptor Usage and Costimulation in CD8⁺ T Cell Activation

 

Undergraduate student, Furman University (Greenville, SC), Sept. 1995-May 1999. Awarded B.S., Biology and B.A. German 

Advisor: Dr. Stephen Hudson

Immunology Research: Role of B7-1 and IL-12 in the Clearance of Brain Tumors

  Effects of Echinacea on the Immune System

 

Familiar Research Techniques:  C. elegans manipulation, C. elegans killing assays, C. elegans persistent colonization assays, confocal microscopy, western blots, PCR, cloning, agarose and PAGE gels, flow cytometry, cell culture, magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS), cellular calcium mobilization assays, cellular proliferation assays ([³H]-thymidine and CFSE), cellular kinase assays, CTL assays, mouse handling and injection, LCMV. 

 

 

Teaching Experience 

 

Adjunct Instructor, Cell Biology (Durham Tech. Community College) Summer 2005

Teaching Assistant, Medical Immunology (UNC-CH) Fall 2001-2003 

Tutor, Introductory Medical Microbiology (UNC-CH) Spring 2003 

Tutor, Medical Immunology (UNC-CH) Fall 2002 

Teaching Assistant, Immunology Seminar/Tutorial (UNC-CH) Fall 2002 

Teaching Assistant, UNC-CH, collaboration with Chapel Hill High School, March 2002 

Teaching Assistant, Intro. Med. Microbiology (UNC-CH) Spring and Fall 2001 

Teaching Fellow (Furman), Fall 1998 (Immunology) and Winter 1999 (Cell Biology) 

Teaching Assistant, Introductory Biology (Furman), 5 trimesters 1997-1999 

Teaching Assistant, Cell Biology (Furman), 2 trimesters in 1998 

 

Mentoring

 

Marianna Abraham, current position: Junior (East Chapel Hill High School), Summer laboratory immersion, June 2005-July 2005. Project: cloning of candidate genes in a vector for RNA interference studies.

 

Ashley Acevedo, current position: Junior Biochemistry major (University of Missouri-Columbia), Summer Research Opportunity Program at Duke University June 2005-August 2005. Project: Time course studies of candidate lectin genes by real-time PCR.

 

Alejandro Torres-Hernandez, current position: Senior Biology major (Duke University), Biology Independent Study, May 2004-December 2004. Project: Role of c-type lectin genes in the C. elegans immune response to Enterococcus faecalis.

 

 

Honors and Awards 

 

National Institutes of Health NRSA Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (May 2005-present) Project: Role of Lectin Genes in C. elegans Innate Immunity

 

UNC Graduate School travel award (2003) 

Association of Southeastern Biologists travel award (2003) 

NIH Pre-doctoral Training grant (2000-2003) 

NSF undergraduate award, 1999 

Furman Advantage Teaching Fellowship 1998-1999 

Furman Advantage Research Fellowship, 1998 

 

 

Professional Development

 

American Society for Microbiology Conference on Undergraduate Education, June 2005 Atlanta, GA.

 

Preparing Future Faculty program (Certificate in Teaching College Biology), Duke University 2004-present

 

Center for Teaching and Learning seminar series (UNC-CH)

 

Classes (UNC-CH) College Teaching and Preparation for the Professorate

 

 

 

Professional Organizations 

 

American Association of Immunologists, trainee member, 2002-2005 

American Society for Microbiology, 2004-present 

Council for Undergraduate Research, student member 2002-2004 

Association of Southeastern Biologists 2002-2004

 

Service 

UNC Immunology Journal Club Coordinator, 2002-2003

Session Chair, UNC Immunology Retreat (UNC-CH) November 2003

Faculty meetings, graduate student representative (UNC-CH) 2002-2003 

Admissions Committee, graduate student representative (UNC-CH) 2001-2002 

Internal Departmental Review Committee (UNC-CH) 2001 

Faculty Search Committee, student representative (Furman University) 1998 

 

 

Publications 

 

R. Maile, C.A. Siler, S.E. Kerry, K.E. Midkiff, E.J. Collins and J.A. Frelinger. Peripheral “CD8 tuning” dynamically modulates the size and responsiveness of an antigen-specific T cell pool in vivo. (Journal of Immunology 2005 174(2):619-627).

 

S.E. Kerry, R. Maile, E.J. Collins and J.A. Frelinger. Memory CD8 T cells require CD8 coreceptor engagement for calcium mobilization and proliferation, but not cytokine production (Immunology 2005 114(1): 44-52).

 

S.E. Kerry, J. Buslepp, L.A. Cramer, R. Maile, L.L. Hensley, A.I. Nielsen, B.J. Vilen, P. Kavathas, E.J. Collins and J.A. Frelinger. Interplay between TCR affinity and necessity of CD8 engagement: high-affinity peptide-MHC:TCR overcomes lack of CD8

engagement (Journal of Immunology 2003 171(9): 4493) 

 

J. Buslepp, S. E. Kerry, D. Loftus, J. A. Frelinger, E. Appella, and E. J. Collins.  High affinity xenoreactive TCR:MHC interaction recruits CD8 in the absence of binding to

MHC (Journal of Immunology 2003 170(1):373) 

 

Oral Presentations 

 

Kerry S.E. Studying Innate Immunity Using Caenorhabditis elegans: Are Humans truly different than worms? Davidson College Seminar Series, January 2005.

 

Kerry, S.E. Role of CD8 coreceptor in CD8+ T cell activation: It's all about affinity. Furman University Seminar Series, October 2003 

 

Kerry SE, R Maile and J.A. Frelinger. A Cumulative Signal Over Time Compensates for Lack of CD8 Engagement in High Affinity pMHC/TCR Interactions. American Association of Immunologists 90^th Annual Meeting, May 2003, Denver, CO, USA 

 

Kerry, Samantha E. and Jeffrey A. Frelinger.  Role of CD8 coreceptor in CD8⁺ T cell activation: it's all about affinity. Association of Southeastern Biologists 64th Annual Meeting, April 2003, Arlington, VA, USA 

 

 

Published Abstracts  

 

S.L. Elliott, L.A. Cramer, J. Buslepp, R. Maile, L.L. Hensley, A. I. Nielsen, B.J. Vilen, P. Kavathas, E.J. Collins and J.A. Frelinger. Increased Affinity of class I MHC/TCR Overcomes Lack of CD8 Engagement (FASEB Experimental Biology meeting, April 2002, New Orleans, LA USA) 

 

 L.A. Cramer, S.L. Elliott, B.J. Vilen, E.J. Collins and J.A. Frelinger. Ligation of TcR by MHC tetramer induces association of TcR, CD28 and CD8.  Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.  (11th International Congress of Immunology, July 2001, Sweden). 

 

 K. Simpson, M. Coleman, S. Elliott, S. Fadel, B.J. Jordan and S.J. Hudson. Echinacea Treatment Enhances Natural Killer Cell Cytotoxicity and Restricts Tumor Cell Growth in BALB/c Mice. Department of Biology, Furman University, Greenville, SC 29613. (FASEB Experimental Biology meeting March 2001, Orlando, FL USA) 

 

 

References

 

Available upon request.