Eddie James, PhD
Background Information
Dr. James received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado. He subsequently attended Washington State University, receiving his PhD in Biochemical Engineering in 2001. After completing an internship at Zymogenetics, he joined the Benaroya Research Institute as manager of the tetramer core and is currently a BRI assistant member.
Area of Research
Dr. James leads several independent research projects related to the role of T cells in autoimmune disease. These projects include a JDRF funded study to investigate the role of protein modifications in the development of destructive immune responses in type 1 diabetes and a cooperative JDRF project aimed at understanding immunologic reasons why some patients with type 1 diabetes rapidly lose all ability to produce insulin while others retain some residual insulin secretion. He also collaborates with Dr. John Piganelli and Dr. Meghan Marre of the University of Pittsburgh and Dr. Chantal Mathieu and Lut Overbergh to investigate how beta cell stress contributes to the breakdown of tolerance in autoimmune diabetes and with Dr. Bill Kwok to study activated T cells in subjects at risk of developing type 1 diabetes. Dr. James is currently co-chair of the JDRF biomarker working group and co-leads the Immunology of Diabetes Society T Cell Workshop. Under the auspices of these groups, he leads biomarker development and validation projects aimed at improved disease staging of subjects who are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
Dr. James participates in collaborative projects with Dr. Jane Buckner and colleagues at the University of Colorado aimed at characterizing T cell responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and investigating mechanisms that promote the breakdown of tolerance in at risk subjects. He is also involved in various other collaborative research projects, applying tetramer technology to identify the chemical patterns recognized by T cells in desirable protective immune responses directed against viruses (such as influenza, tetanus, and chicken pox) and in undesirable destructive immune responses directed against therapeutic proteins (including insulin and Factor VIII) and self-proteins in diseases such as IBD and pemphigus vulgaris. The unifying theme of this work is that understanding the basics of immune recognition and the specifics of both immune protection and immune destruction will lead to better diagnostic tools and better therapies.
Featured Publications
Wiles TA, Hohenstein A, Landry LG, Dang M, Powell R, Guyer P, James EA, Nakayama M, Haskins K, Delong T, Baker RL. Characterization of Human CD4 T Cells Specific for a C-Peptide/C-Peptide Hybrid Insulin Peptide. Front Immunol. 2021 May 25;12:668680. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.668680. PMID: 34113344 | PMC8185328
Song J, Schwenzer A, Wong A, Turcinov S, Rims C, Martinez LR, Arribas-Layton D, Gerstner C, Muir VS, Midwood KS, Malmström V, James EA, Buckner JH. Shared recognition of citrullinated tenascin-C peptides by T and B cells in rheumatoid arthritis. JCI Insight. 2021 Mar 8;6(5):145217. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.145217. PMID: 33507879 | PMC8021118
Piganelli JD, Mamula MJ, James EA. The Role of β Cell Stress and Neo-Epitopes in the Immunopathology of Type 1 Diabetes. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2021 Feb 18;11:624590. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2020.624590. PMID: 33679609 | PMC7930070
Nguyen H, Guyer P, Ettinger RA, James EA. Non-Genetically Encoded Epitopes Are Relevant Targets in Autoimmune Diabetes. Biomedicines. 2021 Feb 17;9(2):202. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9020202. PMID: 33671312 | PMC7922826
Ishigaki K, Lagattuta K, Luo Y, James EA, Buckner JH, Raychaudhuri S. HLA autoimmune risk alleles restrict the hypervariable region of T cell receptors. medRxiv 2020.11.08.20227983; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.08.20227983
DeGottardi Q, Gates TJ, Yang J, James EA, Malhotra U, Chow IT, Simoni Y, Fehlings M, Newell EW, DeBerg HA, Kwok WW. Ontogeny of different subsets of yellow fever virus-specific circulatory CXCR5+ CD4+ T cells after yellow fever vaccination. Sci Rep. 2020 Sep 24;10(1):15686. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-72610-6. PMID: 32973217 | PMC7519049
Carmona-Rivera C, Carlucci PM, Goel RR, James EA, Brooks SR, Rims CR, Hoffmann V, Fox DA, Buckner JH, Kaplan MJ. Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Mediate Articular Cartilage Damage and Enhance Cartilage Component Immunogenicity in Rheumatoid Arthritis. 2020 Jul 9;5(13):139388. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.139388. PMID: 32484790 | PMC7406272
James EA, Mallone R, Kent SC, DiLorenzo TP. T-Cell Epitopes and Neo-epitopes in Type 1 Diabetes: A Comprehensive Update and Reappraisal. JCI Insight. 2020 Jun 23:136579. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.136579. PMID: 32561620 | PMC7306130
Cook L, Rees WD, Wong MQ, Wang X, Peters H, Oliveira L, Lau T, Mah R, Bressler B, Gomez R, Chow IT, James EA, Kwok WW, Levings MK, Steiner TS. Impaired Th17 immunity in recurrent C. difficile infection is ameliorated by fecal microbial transplantation. medRxiv 2020.06.05.20114876
Wei K, Korsunsky I, Marshall JL, Gao A, Watts GFM, Major T, Croft AP, Watts J, Blazar PE, Lange JK, Thornhill TS, Filer A, Raza K, Donlin LT; Accelerating Medicines Partnership Rheumatoid Arthritis & Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (AMP RA/SLE) Consortium, Siebel CW, Buckley CD, Raychaudhuri S, Brenner MB plus collaborators. Notch signalling drives synovial fibroblast identity and arthritis pathology. Nature. 2020 Jun;582(7811):259-264. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2222-z. Epub 2020 Apr 22. PMID: 32499639 | PMC7841716
Arribas-Layton D, Guyer P, Delong T, Dang M, Chow IT, Speake C, Greenbaum CJ, Kwok WW, Baker RL, Haskins K, James EA. Hybrid Insulin Peptides are Recognized by Human T Cells in the Context of DRB1*04:01. Diabetes. 2020 Apr 14. pii: db190620. doi: 10.2337/db19-0620. PMID: 32291282 | PMC7306133
Lande R, Palazzo R, Gestermann N, Jandus C, Falchi M, Spadaro F, Riccieri V, James EA, Butera A, Boirivant M, Feldmeyer L, Surbeck I, Di Lucca J, Stuber F, Spinelli FR, Botti E, Marinari B, Bianchi L, Pica R, Cerbelli B, Giannakakis K, Auteri SE, Daniels I, Durrant LG, Horstman S, Costanzo A, Romero P, Alessandri C, Conti F, Valesini G, Gilliet M, Chizzolini C, Frasca L. Native/citrullinated LL37-specific T-cells help autoantibody production in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Sci Rep. 2020 Apr 3;10(1):5851. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-62480-3. PMID: 32245990 | PMC7125190
Abdelsamed HA, Zebley CC, Nguyen H, Rutishauser RL, Fan Y, Ghoneim HE, Crawford JC, Alfei F, Alli S, Ribeiro SP, Castellaw AH, McGargill MA, Jin H, Boi SK, Speake C, Serti E, Turka LA, Busch ME, Stone M, Deeks SG, Sekaly RP, Zehn D, James EA, Nepom GT, Youngblood B. Beta cell-specific CD8+ T cells maintain stem cell memory-associated epigenetic programs during type 1 diabetes. Nat Immunol. 2020 Mar 30. doi: 10.1038/s41590-020-0633-5. PMID: 32231298 | PMC7183435
Larson D, Patel P, Salapatek AM, Couroux P, Whitehouse D, Pina A, Johnson JL, Sever ML, Sanda S, Poyser J, Allio T, Scadding GW, Qin T, Shamji MH, Kwok WW, James EA, French D, Lelic A, Larché M, Altman MC, Togias A, Durham SR. Nasal Allergen Challenge and Environmental Exposure Chamber Challenge: A Randomized Trial Comparing Clinical and Biological Responses to Cat Allergen. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2020 Jun;145(6):1585-1597. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2020.02.024. Epub 2020 Mar 10. PMID: 32169380
Wen X, Yang J, James EA, Chow IT, Reijonen H, Kwok WW. Increased islet antigen-specific regulatory and effector CD4+ T cells in healthy individuals with the type 1 diabetes-protective haplotype. Sci Immunol. 2020 Feb 14;5(44). pii: eaax8767. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.aax8767. PMID: 32060144 | PMC7566980
Wiedeman AE, Muir VS, Rosasco MG, DeBerg HA, Presnell S, Haas B, Dufort MJ, Speake C, Greenbaum CJ, Serti E, Nepom GT, Blahnik G, Kus AM, James EA, Linsley PS, Long SA. Autoreactive CD8+ T cell exhaustion distinguishes subjects with slow type 1 diabetes progression. J Clin Invest. 2020 Jan 2;130(1):480-490. doi: 10.1172/JCI126595. PMID: 31815738 | PMC6934185
Speake C, Skinner SO, Berel D, Whalen E, Dufort MJ, Young WC, Odegard JM, Pesenacker AM, Gorus FK, James EA, Levings MK, Linsley PS, Akirav EM, Pugliese A, Hessner MJ, Nepom GT, Gottardo R, Long SA. A composite immune signature parallels disease progression across T1D subjects. JCI Insight. 2019 Dec 5;4(23):e126917. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.126917. PMID: 31671072 | PMC6962023.
Chow IT, Gates TJ, Papadopoulos GK, Moustakas AK, Kolawole EM, Notturno RJ, McGinty JW, Torres-Chinn N, James EA, Greenbaum C, Nepom GT, Evavold BD, Kwok WW. Discriminative T cell recognition of cross-reactive islet-antigens is associated with HLA-DQ8 transdimer-mediated autoimmune diabetes. Sci Adv. 2019 Aug 21;5(8):eaaw9336. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw9336. eCollection 2019 Aug. PMID: 31457096 | PMC6703875
Free ME, Stember KG, Hess JJ, McInnis EA, Lardinois O, Hogan SL, Hu Y, Mendoza C, Le AK, Guseman AJ, Pilkinton MA, Bortone DS, Cowens K, Sidney J, Karosiene E, Peters B, James EA, Kwok WW, Vincent BG, Mallal SA, Jennette JC, Ciavatta DJ, Falk RJ. Restricted myeloperoxidase epitopes drive the adaptive immune response in MPO-ANCA vasculitis. J Autoimmun. 2019 Aug 2:102306. doi: 10.1016/j.jaut.2019.102306. PMID: 31337800 | PMC6650447
Meckiff BJ, Ladell K, McLaren JE, Ryan GB, Leese AM, James EA, Price DA, Long HM. Primary EBV Infection Induces an Acute Wave of Activated Antigen-Specific Cytotoxic CD4+ T Cells. J Immunol. 2019 Sep 1;203(5):1276-1287. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1900377. PMID: 31308093 | PMC6697742
Longino NV, Yang J, Iyer JG, Ibrani D, Chow IT, Laing KJ, Campbell VL, Paulson KG, Kulikauskas RM, Church CD, James EA, Nghiem P, Kwok WW, Koelle DM. Human CD4+ T cells specific for Merkel cell polyomavirus localize to Merkel cell carcinomas and target a required oncogenic domain. Cancer Immunol Res. 2019 Aug 12. pii: canimm.0103.2019. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-19-0103. PMID: 31405946 | PMC6438725
Galindo-Feria AS, Albrecht I, Fernandes-Cerqueira C, Notarnicola A, James EA, Herrath J, Dastmalchi M, Sandalova T, Rönnblom L, Jakobsson PJ, Fathi M, Achour A, Grunewald J, Malmström V, Lundberg IE. Pro-inflammatory histidyl-tRNA synthetase-specific CD4+ T cells in the blood and lung of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2019 Aug 12. doi: 10.1002/art.41075. PMID: 31403245
Ahmed S, Cerosaletti K, James EA, Long SA, Mannering S, Speake C, Nakayama M, Tree T, Roep BO, Herold KC, Brusko TM. Standardizing T-Cell Biomarkers in Type 1 Diabetes: Challenges and Recent Advances. Diabetes. 2019 Jul;68(7):1366-1379. doi: 10.2337/db19-0119. PMID: 31221801 | PMC6609980
Rudulier CD, Tonti E, James EA, Kwok WW, Larché M. Modulation of CRTh2 expression on allergen-specific T cells following peptide immunotherapy. Allergy. 2019 May 11. doi: 10.1111/all.13867. PMID: 31077596 | PMC6817377