Pamela J. Skinner

Pam Skinner is a Professor in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Skinner’s research focuses on understanding HIV and prion disease immunopathogenesis and the development of novel treatments for these diseases. She has a broad background in molecular biology, virology, and immunology and is interested in understanding disease pathogenesis and developing novel therapies. Two decades ago, she developed an in situ tetramer staining (IST) technique to visualize antigen-specific CTL in tissues, a technology she continues to use today in her lab to study lentivirus-specific CTL in tissues. This work led to her particular expertise in studying the location, abundance, and phenotype of virus-specific CTL in situ in tissues from humans and animals. Later, in collaboration with Dr. Liz Connick, she found that HIV- and SIV-specific CTL are in relatively low abundance within B cell follicles, where virus replication is most concentrated. This work supports the hypothesis that B cell follicles are somewhat immune privileged sites where low levels of virus-specific CTL permit ongoing viral replication. Her lab is now actively pursuing immunotherapeutic approaches that direct the homing of virus-specific T cells to B cell follicles, which is expected to lead to sustained remission of HIV.