Congratulations to Drs. Benjamin Keselowsky, co-corresponding author Dorina Avram, recent BME Ph.D. graduate Alexander Kwiatkowski, and coauthors on their paper being accepted in the prestigious journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) demonstrating antigen-specific therapies treating autoimmune disease, multiple sclerosis.

The team demonstrates that an antigen-specific microparticle treatment can reverse mouse hind limb paralysis when administered in advanced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). This promising antigen-specific therapeutic approach advantageous engaged essential components of innate and adaptive autoimmune responses and capably reversed paralysis in advanced EAE without using a broad immunosuppressant. The overall impact of this study is the advancement of prospective therapeutics for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

 Team members:

•Dr. Benjamin Keselowsky, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida

•Dr. Alexander Kwiatkowski, Ph.D. graduate, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida

•Eric Y. Helm, Graduate student, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida

•Dr. Josh M. Stewart, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida

•Theodore Drashansky, Ph.D. student, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida

•Dr. Jonathan Cho, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida

•Dr. Dorina Avram, Vice Chair, Immunology, Moffitt Cancer Center