Barbara Whalen, Ph.D.

Professional Summary

Dr. Whalen is a Research Director at BRM with 15+ years of experience in the field of cellular immunology with a specialty in T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases. Prior to joining BRM in 2003, Dr. Whalen completed her post-doctoral training and also held faculty positions at the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Diabetes Division within the Department of Medicine. She has extensive experience with both spontaneous and induced animal models of autoimmune diseases. She has developed adoptive transfer assays to study the cells involved in both the pathogenesis and in the regulation of autoimmunity, as well as a novel adult thymus organ culture system to study T cell development in vitro. Dr. Whalen was previously funded by a Career Development Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and was co-PI on three separate National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in Immunology.

Publications:

Bigazzi PE, Kosuda LL, Hannigan MO, Whalen BJ, Greiner DL. Lack of graft-versus-host pathology in mercury-induced autoimmunity of Brown Norway rats. Clin. Immunol. 2003; 109 (2):229-237.

Whalen BJ, Marounek J, Mordes JP, Rossini AA, Greiner DL. Type 1 cytokines polarize thymocytes during T cell development in adult thymus organ cultures. J. Autoimmunity. 2003; 20:27-42.

Whalen BJ, Marounek J, Weiser P, Appel MC, Greiner DL, Rossinis AA. BB rat thymocytes cultured in the presence of islets lose their ability to transfer autoimmune diabetes. Diabetes. 2001; 50:972-979.

Bortell RD, Waite DJ, Whalen BJ, et al. Levels of Art2+ cells but not soluble Art2 protein correlate with expression of autoimmune diabetes in the BB rat. Autoimmunity. 2001; 33:199-211.

Zipris D, Leif J, Deluca D, Lin MY, Mordes JP, Rossini AA, Greiner DL, Whalen BJ. Fetal thymi from diabetes-prone but not diabetes resistant BB/Wor rats fail to generate mature Art2+ T-cells in organ culture. Cell.Mol.Biol. 2001; 47:65-74.

Whalen BJ, Love LC, Mordes JP, Rossini AA, Greiner DL. Intravital dye-labeled diabetogenic rat T cells retain dye, home to the pancreas, and induce diabetes. Transpl. Proc. 1999; 31:1611-1614.

Whalen BJ, Marounek WJ, Rossini AA, Mordes JP, Greiner DL. Recapitulation of normal and abnormal BioBreeding rat T cell development in adult thymus organ culture. J. Immunol. 1999; 162:4003-4012.

Greiner DL, Whalen BJ. Autoimmunity. In: Pastoret PP, Griebel P, Bazin H, Govaerts A eds. Handbook of Vertebrate Biology. London: Academic Press; 1998; 194-197.

Kosuda LL, Whalen BJ, Greiner DL, Bigazzi PE. Mercury-induced autoimmunity in Brown Norway rats: kinetics of changes in RT6+ T lymphocytes correlated with IgG isotypes of circulating antibodies to laminin 1. Toxicology. 1998; 125:215-231.

Greiner DL, Malkani S, Kanaitsuka T, Bortell R, Doukas J, Rigby M, Whalen BJ, Stevens LA, Moss, J, Mordes JP, Rossini AA. The T cell marker RT6 in a rat model of autoimmunity. In: Haag F, Koch-Nolte eds. ADP-ribosylation in animal tissues: Structure, function and biology of mono(ADP ribosyl)transferases and related enzymes. Adv.Exp.Med.Biol. 1997; 419:209-216.

Whalen BJ, Doukas J, Mordes JP, Rossini AA, Greiner DL. Induction of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in PVG.RT1u rats. Transpl. Proc. 1997; 29:1684-1685.

Whalen BJ, Mordes JP, Rossini AA. The BB rat as a model of human insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. In: Coligan JE et al., eds. Current Protocols in Immunology. John Wiley and Sons Inc.; 1996;15.3.1-15.3.15.

Mordes JP, Bortell R, Doukas J, Rigby M, Whalen BJ, Zipris D, Greiner DL, Rossini. The BB/Wor rat and the balance hypothesis of autoimmunity. Diab.Metabol.Rev. 1996; 12:103-109.

Zipris D, Greiner DL, Malkani S, Whalen BJ, Mordes JP, Rossini AA. Cytokine gene expression in islets and thyroids of BB rats. IFN-gamma and IL-12p40 mRNA increase with age in both diabetic and insulin-treated nondiabetic BB rats. J. Immunol. 1996; 156:1315-1321.

Whalen BJ, Rossini AJ, Mordes JP, Greiner DL. DR-BB rat thymus contains thymocyte populations predisposed to autoreactivity. Diabetes. 1995; 44:963-967.

Whalen BJ, Greiner DL, Mordes JP, Rossini AA. Adoptive transfer of autoimmune diabetes mellitus to athymic rats: synergy of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and prevention by RT6+ T cells. J. Autoimmunity. 1994; 7:819-831.

Whalen BJ. Goldschneider I. Identification and characterization of B cell precursors in rat lymphoid tissues. Adoptive transfer assays for precursors of T1-1, T1-2 and TD antigen-reactive B cells. Cell. Immunol. 1993; 151:168-186.