Title:
Professor

Institute:
Université de Montréal

Department:
Microbiology and Immunology

Province:
Quebec

Training:
Postdoctoral fellow, Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Postdoctoral fellow, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France
PhD, Laval University, Quebec, Canada
MSc,Sherbrooke University, Quebec, Canada
BSc,Laval University, Quebec, Canada

Research interests:
Immunotherapy, MHC, Antigen presentation

Research Projects

Project title:
Targeting of tumor vaccine antigens to MHC II by-products and chaperones expressed on antigen-presenting cells

Funding period: 
2011-2013

Program:
Operating Grant (basic research)

Summary:
Tumors grow because the body's defense mechanisms have not been turned on or are turned off by the cancer cells. Dr. Thibodeau is developing vaccines that could alarm the immune system to the presence of developing tumors. Fragments of cancer cells are injected to the patients and the research aims at determining the best formulation for such vaccines. Indeed, it is crucial to target the vaccine to the white blood cells that are responsible for the initiation of immune responses. This procedure will activate the most proficient defence mechanisms against already established tumors such as melanomas.

CRS publications:

Deshaies, F., Brunet, A., Diallo, D., Denzin, L., Samaan, A. and Thibodeau, J. (2005) A point mutation in the groove of HLA-DO allows egress from the endoplasmic reticulum independent of HLA-DM. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102: 6443-6448.

Azar, G., Sékaly, R.P. and Thibodeau, J. (2005) A defective viral superantigen-presenting phenotype in HLA-DR transfectants is corrected by CIITA. J. Immunol. 174: 7548-7557.

Bellemare-Pelletier, A., Tremblay, J., Beaulieu, S., Boulassel, R., Routhy, J.P., Massie, B., Lapointe, R. and Thibodeau, J. (2005) HLA-DO transduced in human monocyte-derived dendritic cells modulates antigen presentation.J. Leuk. Biol., 78: 95-105.

Lapointe, R., Thibodeau, J. and Hwu, P. (2004) Correspondence re R. Lapointe et al., CD40-stimulated B lymphocytes pulsed with tumor antigens are effective antigen-presenting cells that can generate specific T cells. Cancer Res. 64: 4056-4057

El Fakhry, Y., Bouillon, M., Léveillé, C., Brunet, A., Khalil, H., Thibodeau, J., and Mourad, W. (2004) Delineation of the HLA-DR region and the residues involved in the association with the cytoskeleton. J. Biol. Chem., 279:18472-80)

Bouillon, M., El Fakhry Y, Girouard J, Khalil H, Thibodeau J, Mourad W. (2003) Lipid Raft-dependent and -independent signaling through HLA-DR molecules. J. Biol. Chem. 278 :7099-7107. 

Lapointe, R., Bellemare-Pelletier, A., Housseau, F., Thibodeau, J. and Hwu, P. (2003) CD40-stimulated B lymphocytes pulsed with tumor antigens are effective antigen presenting cells and can generate specific T cells. Cancer Research, 63:2836-2843. 

Khalil, H., Deshaies, F., Bellemare-Pelletier, A., Brunet, A., Faubert, A., Azar, G. and Thibodeau, J. (2002) CIITA-induced expression of HLA-DOb in HeLa cells. Tissue Antigens 60:372-382.

Faubert, A., Samaan, A. and Thibodeau, J. (2002) Functional Analysis of Tryptophans a62 and b120 on HLA-DM. J. Biol. Chem., 277:2750-2755.

Lavoie, P.M., Mcgrath, H., Shoukry, N.H., Cazenave, P.A., Sékaly, R.P. and Thibodeau, J. (2001) Quantitative relationship between MHC class II/superantigen complexes and the balance of T cell activation versus death. J.Immunol., 166: 7229-7237.

Brunet, A., Samaan, A., Deshaies, F., Kindt, T.J. and Thibodeau, J. (2000) Functional Characterization of a Di-leucine Lysosomal Sorting Motifs in the Cytoplasmic Tail of HLA-DOb. J. Biol. Chem., 275 :37062-37071.

Samaan, A., Thibodeau, J., Mahana, W., Castellino, F., Cazenave, P.A. and Kindt, T.J. (1999) Cellular distribution of a mixed MHC class II molecule with the cytoplasmic tail of HLA-DOb. Int. Immunol. 11, 99-111.

Past CRS projects:
 
2004 Modulation of class II antigen processing in DCs to increase CD4+ T cell response toward tyrosinase and gp100 tumor antigens.

2002 Modulation of the expression of HLA-DO in dendritic cells : identificaiton of epitopes T cryptic for anti-tumoral vaccination.

2000 Development and characterization of dendritic cells for immunothérapy for amplification of the effect “autolog graft versus leukemia” (GVL)

1998 Down-modulation of MHC class II antigen presentation pathway in cancer cells:  Structure of the non-classical HLA-DO protein and its role in tumor escape