Education

• PhD, Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 1979
• Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, National Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic and Mayo Medical School, Rochester, MN, 1980-1983

Professional Activities

Dr. Burlingham serves on the editorial board of Transplantation. He is also the chairman of the University of Wisconsin Spring Immunology Seminar Series.

Research Interests

Dr. Burlingham has developed a highly respected transplant basic research program that focuses on acquired immunologic tolerance. His laboratory hopes to gain insight into graft acceptance by studying transplant recipients who have survived after stopping immunosuppressive drugs.

Specifically, his research focuses on the natural exchange of soluble antigens and low numbers of white blood cells that occurs between mother and child during pregnancy and nursing. The lab’s working hypothesis is that this exchange, which leads to persistence of bone marrow-derived maternal blood cells within the offspring (“microchimerism”) may induce a “natural” form of tolerance. This tolerance, if harnessed, may allow for drug-free acceptance of transplanted grafts.

Dr. Burlingham's Lab

Funding/Grants

• TH17 Autoimmunity to Type V Collagen in Heart and Lung Transplant
  Funding Agency: National Institutes of Health/Indiana University
  Principal Investigator(s): William J Burlingham, PhD
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Active Clinical Trials

• Mycophenolic Acid Monotherapy in Recipients of HLA-identical Living-Related Transplantation
  Principal Investigator(s): William J Burlingham, PhD, Hans W. Sollinger, MD, PhD, FACS
  Status: Active, not recruiting
  [ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01053221]
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Recent Publications

• Trans-vivo Delayed Type Hypersensitivity Assay for Antigen Specific Regulation.
  Jankowska-Gan E, Hegde S, Burlingham WJ
  J Vis Exp 2013; (75):.
  [PubMed ID: 23665523]
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• Human prostate tumor antigen-specific CD8+ regulatory T cells are inhibited by CTLA-4 or IL-35 blockade.
  Olson BM, Jankowska-Gan E, Becker JT, Vignali DA, Burlingham WJ, McNeel DG
  J. Immunol. 2012 Dec 15; 189(12):5590-601.
  [PubMed ID: 23152566]
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• Elevated protein kinase C-δ contributes to aneurysm pathogenesis through stimulation of apoptosis and inflammatory signaling.
  Morgan S, Yamanouchi D, Harberg C, Wang Q, Keller M, Si Y, Burlingham W, Seedial S, Lengfeld J, Liu B
  Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol. 2012 Oct; 32(10):2493-502.
  [PubMed ID: 22879584, PMC ID: 3442600]
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• An Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) mutant with enhanced BZLF1 expression causes lymphomas with abortive lytic EBV infection in a humanized mouse model.
  Ma SD, Yu X, Mertz JE, Gumperz JE, Reinheim E, Zhou Y, Tang W, Burlingham WJ, Gulley ML, Kenney SC
  J. Virol. 2012 Aug; 86(15):7976-87.
  [PubMed ID: 22623780, PMC ID: 3421695]
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• Bidirectional alloreactivity: A proposed microchimerism-based solution to the NIMA paradox.
  Burlingham WJ, Benichou G
  Chimerism 2012 Apr-Jun; 3(2):29-36.
  [PubMed ID: 22850252, PMC ID: 3442809]
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