UWRF hosts the 2010 UW-System Research Day on April 30th!

Once again, UWRF was selected as the site for the annual UW-System Statewide Research Day. On April 30th more than 350 students from across the state will converge on the UC for a day of presentations and talks which showcase activities throughout the System. This represents the second time UWRF has hosted this important event. The first time was in 2008 when more than 300 students came to our campus for a very successful meeting.

This years keynote address will be presented by Brian Fife, an Immunology researcher at the UMinn TC Medical School. This presentation represents a full circle for UWRF Undergraduate research since Brian was a student here in the 1990’s and conducted his first research immunology projects in the Biology Department under the direction of Dr. Karen Klyczek. Now, Brain is a rising star in the field of Immunology who regularly publishes in the best science journals in the world. Not bad for one of our own!

Brian Fife graduated from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls in May 1995, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biotechnology. He then received his Ph.D. in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis through the Department of Pathology at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, IL, in 2001. Brian went on to perform postdoctoral fellow research at the University of California at San Francisco in the Department of Medicine Diabetes Center in San Francisco, CA., until 2007.

Brian has received numerous honors and awards for his research regarding Juvenile Diabetes. Brian is an Assistant Professor in the Department Medicine in the Division of Rheumatic and Autoimmune Diseases, Center for Immunology at the U of M. He is a member of many associations, including the American Society of Immunologists, the American Diabetes Association, the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Brian is the Director of the Center for Immunology Imaging Core Facility, as well as a faculty mentor for the Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology graduate program at the U of M.

Brian is an Ad Hoc Reviewer for seven scientific journals including the journals Cell, Diabetes, and the Journal of Immunology. He has upwards of 20 publications including “Interactions between PD-1 and PD-L1 promote tolerance by blocking the T cell receptor-induced stop signal.” (Nature Immunology. 2009 Nov;10(11):1185-92.) and “Visualizing regulatory T cell control of autoimmune responses in non-obese diabetic mice.” (Nature Immunology 2006 Jan;7(1):83-92.)