Justine Liepkalns
Justine Liepkalns
Associate Teaching Professor
216 E HCK
(206) 616-5729
Not accepting graduate students
Fields of interest
My research interests currently lie in Biology Education and include undergraduate career development, creating a community in the classroom and the use of social media.
Born in France, I was raised in a bilingual household in the countryside and traveled to the US. I attended a small liberal arts school in Florida (Eckerd College) the moved to Boston for my Master's Degree in Biology from Tufts University and later attended Emory University, in Georgia for my Ph.D. in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis. My thesis research was based on incompatible transfusions of red blood cells and have yielded more questions than answers! I later joined the Immunization and Respiratory Diseases branch of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study the immune reactions to influenza and vaccines in mice and humans. In light of my interest for teaching, learning and research, I became an NIH IRACDA fellow which trained us in teaching at HBCUs along side our research.
I consider myself an educator and an immunologist with a specialty in virology and red blood cell immunology. I have taught classes since 2008 and aim to form communities within my classrooms. Outreach opportunities and igniting projects are always of interest. As an example, two Freshmen students used crowd sourcing to designed a detection method to help screenings during the 2014 Ebola outbreak and submitted an application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Think of ways you could start a project!
Rapamycin Does Not Impede Survival or Induction of Antibody Responses to Primary and Heterosubtypic Influenza Infections in Mice.,
JS, Liepkalns, A Pandey, AR Hofstetter, A Kumar, EN Jones, W Cao, F Liu, MZ Levine, S Sambhara, and S Gangappa
, Viral Immunology, Volume 29, Issue 8, (2016)
RIG-I ligand enhances the immunogenicity of recombinant H7HA protein.,
W, Cao*, JS Liepkalns*, RP Kamal, AJ Reber, JH Kim, AR Hofstetter, S Amoah, J Stevens, P Ranjan, S Gangappa, et al.
, Cellular Immunology, Volume 304-305, (2016)
A highly immunogenic vaccine against A/H7N9 influenza virus.,
W, Cao*, JS Liepkalns*, AO Hassan, RP Kamal, AR Hofstetter, S Amoah, JH Kim, AJ Reber, J Stevens, JM Katz, et al.
, Vaccine, Volume 34, Issue 6, (2016)
Prior infection with influenza virus but not vaccination leaves a long-term immunological imprint that intensifies the protective efficacy of antigenically drifted vaccine strains.,
JH, Kim, J Liepkalns, AJ Reber, X Lu, N Music, J Jacob, and S Sambhara
, Vaccine, Volume 34, Issue 4, (2016)
Antigen modulation confers protection to red blood cells from antibody through Fcγ receptor ligation.,
S, Stowell*, JS Liepkalns*, JE Hendrickson, KR Girard-Pierce, NH Smith, CM Arthur, JC Zimring, and co-1st-Authors *
, Journal of Immunology , Volume 19, Issue 10, (2013)
Resistance of a subset of red blood cells to clearance by antibodies in a mouse model of incompatible transfusion.,
JS, Liepkalns, CM Cadwell, S Stowell, EA Hod, SL Spitalnik, and JC Zimring
, Transfusion, Volume 53, Issue 6, (2013)
Biphasic clearance of incompatible red blood cells through a novel mechanism requiring neither complement nor Fcγ receptors in a murine model.,
JS, Liepkalns, EA Hod, S Stowell, CM Cadwell, SL Spitalnik, and JC Zimring
, Transfusion, Volume 52, Issue 12, (2012)
Cytokine Storm in a Mouse Model of IgG-mediated Hemolytic Transfusion Reactions,
Hod, E., Cadwell C., Liepkalns J., Zimring J., SA Sokol, DA Schirmer, J Jhang, and SL Spitalnik
, Blood, Volume 112, Issue 3, (2008)