November 11| Online
By Dra. Jill Hollenbach, UCSF, GenDx
For this webinar we have invited guest speaker Dr. Jill A. Hollenbach from UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. Natural killer (NK) cell mediated immunity is a key component of the first line of defense against viruses and tumors. The killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) are a family of receptors expressed on NK cells and a small percentage of T-cells where they interact with tissue/cell human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules to regulate cell killing and cytokine responses. A balance between inhibitory and activating KIR helps ensure that NK cells develop to be tolerant of healthy autologous cells and responsive to cells with compromised HLA expression (e.g., in some virus-infected and tumor cells).