Immunobiology Laboratory
Lab Director
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
North Shore - LIJ Health System
350 Community Drive, Room 2314
Manhasset, NY 11030
Tel: (516) 562-3436
Fax: (516) 562-2533
Email: tr@nshs.edu
The Immunobiology Laboratory at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research aims to elucidate the role and function of B lymphocytes in health and disease. Recent work has focused on human B1 cells, a unique B lymphocyte subset that produces “natural” antibody and regulates T-cell activity and whose phenotype has now been defined here. Human B1 cells are the key to development of effective therapeutic antibodies and to understanding and treating autoimmune diseases. Recent work has also encompassed exploration of alternate intracellular signaling pathways activated by antigen receptor triggering, and the mechanisms and outcomes of signaling enhancement and anti-apoptosis produced by novel gene, FAIM. Further details are available under Interests.
The laboratory is led by Dr. Thomas L. Rothstein. Dr. Rothstein completed internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at George Washington University Hospital and at Beth Israel Hospital/Harvard Medical School, respectively, interrupted by a Research Fellowship at the National Cancer Institute with Dr. Michael G. Mage. Dr. Rothstein then completed a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Beth Israel Hospital/Harvard Medical School, the research portion of which was carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Dr. Malcolm L. Gefter. Subsequently, Dr. Rothstein joined the Section of Hematology in the Department of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor. Over the next 24 years Dr. Rothstein rose to the rank of Professor of Medicine and filled a number of roles including service as Associate Chief for Research in the combined Section of Hematology/Oncology, Director of the NIH-supported T32 Training Program in Blood Diseases and Resources, and Director of the Immunobiology Unit.
Over the years Dr. Rothstein has served as Member and Chair of the Cellular Immunology Study Section of the Arthritis Foundation, as a member of the Novel Research Task Force of the Lupus Research Institute, and as an ad hoc member of many NIH regular and special emphasis study sections. He has served as a an Associate Editor of The Journal of Immunology and a member of the Editorial Board of the Open Autoimmunity Journal, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers in B Cell Biology. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the Henry Kunkel Society. Dr. Rothstein has mentored 19 graduate students and 26 postdoctoral fellows. In 2006, Dr. Rothstein was recruited to The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research as Investigator and Head of the Center for Oncology and Cell Biology. He is also Professor in the Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine at The Feinstein Institute and Professor of Medicine and Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. Dr. Rothstein’s major and continuing research interests revolve around the lives of B cells, from birth to death, and especially the activation and differentiation events that occur in between.