Overview
Dr. Wiesner performed his doctoral training at the University of Minnesota in the
Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer Biology graduate program. His PhD dissertation
focused on the induction, suppression, and detrimental consequences of helper T cell
responses to pulmonary fungal infections. During his postdoctoral fellowship at the
University of Wisconsin ??? Madison, he expanded this interest in T cells and fungi to
examine how proteolytic allergen damage to the airways is sensed and responded to by
lung epithelial cells to drive allergic T cell sensitization and asthma. Dr. Wiesner joined
faculty at Rutgers-NJMS in the Fall of 2021 where his lab will investigate how stromal
tissues in the lung impact T cell responses to fungal pathogens and allergens.
Education
PHD, 2015, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
BSN, 2005, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Curriculum Vitae
View CV
Allergic asthma is the fastest growing childhood illness in the United States, affecting
nearly 10% of American children and burdening the healthcare system >$50 billion per
year. A major impediment to reversing this disturbing trend is an incomplete
understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying allergic asthma. The Wiesner lab
investigates two aspects of allergic asthma: sensitization and persistence. The first
project (sensitization) centers on the earliest response to allergen exposure, whereby
lung epithelial cells respond to cell junction damage caused by inhalation of fungal
protease allergens. We explore mechanotransduction, calcium amplification circuits, and
calcineurin-dependent transcription factors that form a complete signaling pathway
within epithelial cells that lead to the priming of maladaptive immunity. Collectively, these
studies will pave the way for future investigations into damage responses to other fungal
allergens or in other diseases systems. This information will also identify novel alarmin
signals downstream of bronchial epithelial cells involved in allergic sensitization. The
second project (persistence) focuses on allergen-specific, memory T cell residence in the
lungs. Our lab has developed a model system and reagents that allow us to study long
term maintenance of CD4+ T cells in the lungs of allergen sensitized mice. This project
partly aims to apply practical approaches to directly delete allergen-specific memory T
cells, and the other part aims to understand the signals exchanged between T cells and
the stromal tissues that supports memory T cell residence in the lungs.
