Mitchell Kronenberg (born December 12, 1951) is an American immunologist and the chief scientific officer at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. He served as president of the institute from 2003 to 2021.[1] 

Mitchell Kronenberg
Born (1951-12-12) December 12, 1951 (age 72)
Alma materColumbia University
California Institute of Technology
Scientific career
FieldsImmunology
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Los Angeles
La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Education

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Kronenberg received his Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University in 1973 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology,[2] where he stayed on to complete postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Leroy Hood.

Scientific career

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In 1986, Kronenberg joined the faculty at UCLA, where he rose through the ranks and was promoted to full professor in 1997. In 1997, he moved to La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) to head the Division of Developmental Immunology. He was appointed president and chief scientific officer of LJI in 2003.[3]

Kronenberg is an adjunct professor of Biology[4] at UC San Diego and co-directs the program in Immunology,[5] a collaborative effort between the La Jolla Institute and UC San Diego. During his leadership, LJI formalized its ties with UC San Diego,[6] maintained its relationship with Kyowa Kirin, expanded its core facilities and technologic prowess, increased its budget four-fold and grew in reputation.[7]

From 2009 to 2015, he was also the secretary-treasurer of the American Association of Immunologists.[8] He advises many organizations, including the National Cancer Institute on the Board of Scientific Counselors. 

Research

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The Kronenberg lab focuses on understanding innate-like lymphocytes, mainly natural killer T (NKT) cells, a subset of T cells that recognizes glycolipids and is involved in a variety of immune responses including autoimmune, anti-tumoral responses and antimicrobial responses. Kronenberg also has research in mucosal immunology and on the development of inflammatory bowel diseases.

Kronenberg's work had a major impact in defining how glycolipid antigens are taken into cells and processed in lysosomes[9] and unraveled the intracellular traffic of CD1d,[10] which is the MHC class I molecule that presents lipid antigens. He has led the field in defining microbial antigens from environmental bacteria[11] and from pathogenic microbes for mouse and human NKT cells,[12][13] characterizing the biochemistry of antigen recognition, and has shown that NKT cells are protective in Lyme disease[14] and pneumonia.[15][13] In the mucosal immune system, major findings from the Kronenberg laboratory have identified functions of another MHC class I antigen presenting molecule expressed in intestine epithelium, the Thymus Leukemia antigen.[16] His work has determined how the balance of regulatory versus pro-inflammatory responses occurs, with breakthroughs in understanding the roles of retinoic acid[17] and IL-10. Recently, they demonstrated that HVEM, a TNF receptor homolog, has enormous influence on the mucosal immune response by triggering protective innate anti-microbial responses against important pathogens by innate lymphoid cells type 3 (ILC3)[18] and epithelial cells in the intestine.[19]

Awards

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Kronenberg was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2015.[8] He received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) and was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the AAI in 2019.[8]

Personal life

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Kronenberg is married to Hilde Cheroutre, also a professor at La Jolla Institute and they have collaborated on a number of studies.[20][21]

References

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  1. ^ Lu, Jamie (September 25, 2021). "La Jolla Institute for Immunology celebrates new president". Del Mar Times. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  2. ^ "Thank You to Our FY21 Donors". Columbia College Today. 2021-08-30. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
  3. ^ "Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D." La Jolla Institute for Immunology. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  4. ^ "Mitchell Kronenberg". biology.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  5. ^ "Leadership". immunology.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  6. ^ Robbins, Gary (July 25, 2015). "Institute spurns USC, chooses UC San Diego". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  7. ^ "Xconomy: La Jolla Immunology Institute Agrees to Formal Ties with UCSD". Xconomy. 2015-07-29. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  8. ^ a b c "Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D." The American Association of Immunologists. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
  9. ^ Prigozy, T. I.; Naidenko, O.; Qasba, P.; Elewaut, D.; Brossay, L.; Khurana, A.; Natori, T.; Koezuka, Y.; Kulkarni, A.; Kronenberg, M. (2001-01-26). "Glycolipid antigen processing for presentation by CD1d molecules". Science. 291 (5504): 664–667. doi:10.1126/science.291.5504.664. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 11158680.
  10. ^ Chandra, S.; Gray, J.; Kiosses, W.B.; Khurana, K.; Hitomi, K.; Crosby, C.; Chawla, A.; Fu, Z.; Zhao, M.; Veerapen, N.; Richardson, S.K. (2018). "Mrp1 is involved in lipid presentation and iNKT cell activation by Streptococcus pneumoniae". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 4279. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06646-8. PMC 6189046. PMID 30323255.
  11. ^ Kinjo, Yuki; Wu, Douglass; Kim, Gisen; Xing, Guo-Wen; Poles, Michael A.; Ho, David D.; Tsuji, Moriya; Kawahara, Kazuyoshi; Wong, Chi-Huey; Kronenberg, Mitchell (2005-03-24). "Recognition of bacterial glycosphingolipids by natural killer T cells". Nature. 434 (7032): 520–525. doi:10.1038/nature03407. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 15791257. S2CID 4412869.
  12. ^ Kinjo, Yuki; Tupin, Emmanuel; Wu, Douglass; Fujio, Masakazu; Garcia-Navarro, Raquel; Benhnia, Mohammed Rafii-El-Idrissi; Zajonc, Dirk M.; Ben-Menachem, Gil; Ainge, Gary D.; Painter, Gavin F.; Khurana, Archana (September 2006). "Natural killer T cells recognize diacylglycerol antigens from pathogenic bacteria". Nature Immunology. 7 (9): 978–986. doi:10.1038/ni1380. ISSN 1529-2908. PMID 16921381. S2CID 25895420.
  13. ^ a b Kinjo, Yuki; Illarionov, Petr; Vela, José Luis; Pei, Bo; Girardi, Enrico; Li, Xiangming; Li, Yali; Imamura, Masakazu; Kaneko, Yukihiro; Okawara, Akiko; Miyazaki, Yoshitsugu (2011-09-04). "Invariant natural killer T cells recognize glycolipids from pathogenic Gram-positive bacteria". Nature Immunology. 12 (10): 966–974. doi:10.1038/ni.2096. ISSN 1529-2916. PMC 3178673. PMID 21892173.
  14. ^ Tupin, Emmanuel; Benhnia, Mohammed Rafii-El-Idrissi; Kinjo, Yuki; Patsey, Rebeca; Lena, Christopher J.; Haller, Matthew C.; Caimano, Melissa J.; Imamura, Masakazu; Wong, Chi-Huey; Crotty, Shane; Radolf, Justin D. (2008-12-16). "NKT cells prevent chronic joint inflammation after infection with Borrelia burgdorferi". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 105 (50): 19863–19868. doi:10.1073/pnas.0810519105. ISSN 1091-6490. PMC 2604993. PMID 19060201.
  15. ^ Chandra, S.; Gray, J.; Kiosses, W.B.; Khurana, A.; Hitomi, K.; Crosby, C.; Chawla, A.; Fu, Z.; Zhao, M.; Veerapen, N.; Richardson, S.K. (2018). "Mrp1 is involved in lipid presentation and iNKT cell activation by Streptococcus pneumoniae". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 4279. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06646-8. PMC 6189046. PMID 30323255.
  16. ^ Leishman, A. J.; Naidenko, O. V.; Attinger, A.; Koning, F.; Lena, C. J.; Xiong, Y.; Chang, H. C.; Reinherz, E.; Kronenberg, M.; Cheroutre, H. (2001-11-30). "T cell responses modulated through interaction between CD8alphaalpha and the nonclassical MHC class I molecule, TL". Science. 294 (5548): 1936–1939. doi:10.1126/science.1063564. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 11729321. S2CID 86097219.
  17. ^ Mucida, Daniel; Park, Yunji; Kim, Gisen; Turovskaya, Olga; Scott, Iain; Kronenberg, Mitchell; Cheroutre, Hilde (2007-07-13). "Reciprocal TH17 and regulatory T cell differentiation mediated by retinoic acid". Science. 317 (5835): 256–260. doi:10.1126/science.1145697. ISSN 1095-9203. PMID 17569825. S2CID 24736012.
  18. ^ Seo, Goo Young; Shui, Jr Wen; Takahashi, Daisuke; Song, Christina; Wang, Qingyang; Kim, Kenneth; Mikulski, Zbigniew; Chandra, Shilpi; Giles, Daniel A.; Zahner, Sonja; Kim, Pyeung Hyeun (2018-08-08). "LIGHT-HVEM Signaling in Innate Lymphoid Cell Subsets Protects Against Enteric Bacterial Infection". Cell Host and Microbe. 24 (2): 249–260.e4. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2018.07.008. ISSN 1931-3128. PMC 6132068. PMID 30092201.
  19. ^ Shui, Jr-Wen; Larange, Alexandre; Kim, Gisen; Vela, Jose Luis; Zahner, Sonja; Cheroutre, Hilde; Kronenberg, Mitchell (2012-08-09). "HVEM signalling at mucosal barriers provides host defence against pathogenic bacteria". Nature. 488 (7410): 222–225. doi:10.1038/nature11242. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 3477500. PMID 22801499.
  20. ^ "On Campus at GCC". Glendale News-Press. August 21, 2000. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  21. ^ "De La Jolla Institute a Santa Comba". La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). 2013-12-15. Retrieved 2022-06-25.