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UTHSCSA
DEAN’S MESSAGE
By Francisco González-Scarano, MD
Our immune system is one of mirac- Born in Italy, Dr. Casali received his
ulous design and deep complexity. It degree in medicine and surgery (magna
regularly saves us from intruders such as cum laude) from the University of
viruses, bacteria or tumors; it is the sys- Milan, where he was then a resident in
tem that responds to vaccines and pro- internal medicine and also obtained a
vides immunity to illnesses. The study specialty in clinical immunology and al-
of the immune system integrates many lergy as well as microbiology and virol-
different disciplines and has resulted in ogy. He pursued postgraduate work in
some of the most important break- immunology at the Medical School of
throughs of our time – such as vaccines the University of Geneva, Switzerland,
for smallpox and polio and more re- along with assignments as a field officer
cently for the cancer-inducing human in Ethiopia by the World Health Organ-
papillomavirus. This research has been ization where he trained at the All Africa
integral to the high standards of health Leprosy Training and Research Center
and extended the life-expectancy most (now known as ALERT).
developed countries now enjoy. Paolo Casali, MD At UC-Irvine Dr. Casali is credited
On the other hand, the immune sys- with building the renowned Institute
tem can also be our worst enemy – pro- for Immunology and the National In-
ducing autoantibodies and/or killer T-cells that destroy tissues in stitutes of Health-funded immunology training graduate pro-
every major organ system – leading to diseases like type 1 diabetes, gram. Prior to joining the University of California, Dr. Casali
lupus and Crohn’s disease. was a tenured professor at the Weill Medical College of Cornell
RECENTLY JOINED FACULTY University in New York. At Cornell, he developed a successful
research program in addition to fulfilling administrative and
This month I would like to highlight Paolo Casali, MD, a re- teaching duties. Dr. Casali was the director of the integrated
cent addition to our faculty. Dr. Casali, – a world-renowned im- Cornell/Sloan-Kettering/Hospital for Special Surgery graduate
munologist whose work is in the field of autoimmune disorders program in immunology, for which he obtained an N.I.H.
and its processes – was recruited as the new chairman of the De- training grant, as well as co-director of the Host Defense (Im-
partment of Microbiology and Immunology in the School of munology/Microbiology/Pathology) course for medical stu-
Medicine. He is also the holder of the Zachry Foundation Dis- dents, for which he received the Outstanding Teacher award
tinguished Chair in Microbiology and Immunology. He came to in 2000.
San Antonio approximately one year ago from the University of For the past 25 years, Dr. Casali has conducted pioneering re-
California School of Medicine at Irvine, where he was a professor search on the molecular mechanisms used by B-lymphocytes to
of medicine, molecular biology and biochemistry, and director of produce antibodies. Dr. Casali’s primary field of expertise is in
the Institute for Immunology. His specialty is the genetics in the the understanding and regulation of antibody gene expression,
process of B-cell differentiation, and the means through which somatic hypermutation and class switch DNA recombination
DNA recombination and somatic hypermutation lead to the ex- — processes that critically underpin the body’s response to
pression of a virtually infinite array of antibodies with high affinity viruses, bacteria, cancer cells and tissue/organ damage in au-
for specific antigens. toimmune diseases.
32 San Antonio Medicine • April 2015
