Robert Cone, Ph.D.
Professor

University of Connecticut Health Center
Department of Immunology
263 Farmington Avenue
Farmington, CT 06030-3105
Telephone: (860) 679-3611
Fax: (860) 679-8130
email: cone@uchc.edu

Areas of Interest:
No Rolls Royce is built without brakes! The immune system is highly regulated to protect the host from the "collateral damage" of an immune response that protects from foreign invaders. A failure of this complex regulatory system can lead to autoimmune disease, a "fifth column" attack against self, damage to tissue and/or to a loss or deficiency in immunity resulting in susceptibility to infection or cancer. The overall objective of our laboratory is to understand immunoregulation at the cellular and molecular level. To achieve this goal we analyze the induction and function of antigen-specific regulatory T lymphocytes stimulated by cells from the eye. This mechanism "protects" the eye from damage by the immune response. Molecular and cell-based mechanisms of regulation of T lymphocytes that effect cell-mediated immunity and autoimmune disease is under analysis. The biochemical properties, molecular/genetic origin and functional properties of soluble, antigen-specific T cell proteins that regulate some aspects of immunity but may also cause some aspects of food allergies, chemical sensitivities and Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome is also being investigated.

Lab Rotation Projects:
 (1) The role of the thymus in adult mice as a mechanism that supplies regulatory cells that induce splenic suppressor T cells.
 (2) The mechanisms of  the induction and  immune suppression  by splenic suppressor T cells. These investigations are done with the examination of the immune response to foreign antigens and the prevention of autoimmune disease.
 (3) The nature and migration of regulatory dendritic cells from the eye that induce regulatory T cells.
 (4) The cellular basis of the regulation of T cells by the sympathetic nervous system.
 
Accepting Lab Rotation Students: Summer '08, Fall '08, Spring '09, Fall ‘09

Selected Publications

Wang,Y, Ghali, W,Pingle,P, Traboulsi,A, Dalal,T, O’Rourke,J Cone RE. 2003. Splenic T cells from mice receiving intracameral antigen suppress in vitro antigen-induced proliferation and interferon gamma production by sensitized lymph node cells. Ocular Immunology and Inflammation 11:39-47.

Cochrane,R,Clark,RB, Maulik,N, Cordis,G, Cone RE. 2003. cAMP-mediated suppression of a Th1 clone associated with an alteration of the intracellular redox environment. Cell and Molecular Biology  49:301-306.

Wang,Y,Goldschneider, I, O’Rourke,J and Cone RE. 2001. Blood mononuclear cells induce regulatory NK thymocytes in anterior chamber-associated immune deviation. J. Leukocyte biology.  69:741-746.

Cone, RE*, Li,X, Sharafieh,R,O’Rourke,J and Vella,AT. 2006. The suppression of delayed-type hypersensitivity by CD8+ regulatory T cells required interferon-g Immunology 120:112-119.

Subhasis Chattopadhyay, James O’Rourke and Robert E. Cone * 2008 Implication for the CD94/NKG2a- QA-1 system in the generation and function of ocular-induced splenic cd8+ regulatory T cells. Intern. Immunol. 20:509-516