Bridget S. WILSON, PhD

wilsonBudke Endowed Professor, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
AAAS Fellow (elected 2012)
Member, Collegium International Allergologicum
Member, American Society for Hematology

Education & Training:
PhD, University of New Mexico
Postdoctoral fellow, University of California San Diego (laboratories of Nobel Laurate George Palade and National Academy member Marilyn Farquhar)

Research Interests:

  • Signal transduction by ITAM-bearing receptors, particularly the high affinity IgE receptor (FcεRI)
  • Cell biology of mast cells and basophils, allergen valency
  • Tyrosine kinase signaling in carcinogenesis
  • Immunotherapy
  • Interdisciplinary science, advancing cell signaling research through integrated experimentation and mathematical modeling

Bio:
Dr. Wilson is a cell and systems biologist with >25 years experience studying signal transduction, intracellular trafficking and membrane biology.  The Wilson laboratory specializes in innovative quantitative imaging approaches, including high-resolution fluorescence-based microscopy, intravital imaging and electron microscopy (EM) approaches. The Wilson laboratory has been continuously supported by NIH since 1995. Her grant portfolio also includes funding from foundations and the US Dept. of Defense. Wilson’s publications have been recognized by Immunology Today, Trends in Cell Biology and Faculty of 1000 as research breakthroughs and led to invited talks at Gordon, Keystone, FASEB conferences and a number of other national and international meetings.  In the field of Systems Biology, Dr. Wilson is best known for leading interdisciplinary teams that integrate novel quantitative data sets through computational approaches; the storage, computing and statistical analysis needs for these large databases are significant. She is director the New Mexico Spatiotemporal Modeling (STMC), a NIH NIGMS-funded National Center for Systems Biology.  She served a term as Associate Editor for the Journal of Immunology and has served on a large number of NIH study sections, as well as ad hoc reviewer for European foundations and government funding agencies. She currently serves on three additional External Advisory Boards for US academic institutions. In addition to Wilson’s two decade career focusing on the high affinity IgE receptor and its role in allergy initiation, she also has a strong research program in cancer signaling in leukemia and ovarian cancer.  She has been a Program leader at UNM’s NCI-designated Cancer Center since 2005, which received Comprehensive statusin 2015.

Selected publications (from a list over 100):

  1. Wilson BS, Pfeiffer JR and Oliver JM. (2000) Observing FcεRI signaling from the inside of the mast cell membrane. Journal of Cell Biology 149:1131-1142.
  2. Smith AJ, Pfeiffer JR, Zhang J, Martinez AM, Griffiths GM &Wilson BS. (2003)  Microtubule-dependent transport of secretory vesicles in RBL-2H3 cells. Traffic 4: 302-312.
  3. M Xue, G Hsieh, M Raymond-Stintz, S Steinberg, E Prossnitz, JM Oliver, D Lidke and BS Wilson. (2007) FPR and FcεRI occupy common domains for signaling and internalization.  Molecular Biology of the Cell 18:1410-1420
  4. NL Andrews, K Lidke, AR Burns, JM Oliver, BS Wilson and D Lidke. (2008) Actin restricts FcεRI diffusion and facilitates antigen-induced receptor immobilization.  Nature Cell Biology 10:955-963
  5. L Andrews, JR Pfeiffer, AM Martinez, DM Haaland, RW Davis, T Kawakami, JM Oliver, BS Wilson, DS Lidke. (2009)  Small, mobile FcεRI aggregates are signaling competent.  Immunity, 31: 469-479
  6. A Carroll-Portillo, K Spendier, J Pfeiffer, G Griffiths, H Li, J M Oliver, D Lidke, K Lidke, J Thomas, BS Wilson* and J Timlin. (2010) FcεRI membrane dynamics upon binding mobile or immobile ligands on surfaces: formation of a mast cell synapse. J. Immunology 184:1328-1338    *corresponding author.
  7. A Carroll-Portillo, Z Surviladze, ACambi, DS Lidke and BS Wilson. (2012) Mast cell synapses and exosomes: membrane contacts for information exchange.  Mast Cells and Immunity.  Frontiers in Inflammation. Vol 3:Article 46.
  8. C Cleyrat, A Darehshouri, A Benmerah, G Zwartz, D Lidke, N Volkman, D Hanein and BS Wilson.(2013)  The architectural relationship of components controlling mast cell endocytosis.  Journal of Cell Science, 126:4913-4925.
  9. A Mahajan, D Burua, P Cutler, DS Lidke, ARM Bradbury, C-S Tung, FA Espinoza, C Pehlke, R Grattan, Y Kawakami, WS Hlavacek and BS Wilson (2014) Optimal aggregation of FcεRI with a structurally-defined trivalent ligand overrides negative regulation driven by phosphatases. ACS Chemical Biology, 9(7):1508-19
  10. Lopez, CA, A Sethi, B Goldstein, BS Wilson and S. Gnanakaran. (2015) Membrane-mediated regulation of the intrinsically disordered CD3ε cytoplasmic tail of the TCR.Biophysical J., 108:2482-2492 (Cover)
  11. M F Erasmus, K Matlawska, A Mahajan, SS Winter,L Xu, M Horowitz, DS Lidkeand BS Wilson. (2016) Dynamic pre-BCR homodimers fine tune autonomous signals for B lineage ALL survival.  Science Signaling, Nov 29;9(456):ra116.
  12. A Mahajan, LA Youssef, C Cleyrat, R Grattan, CP Mattison, M Schuyler and BS Wilson. (2017) Allergen valency, dose and FcεRI occupancy set thresholds for secretory responses to Pen a1 and motivate design of hypoallergens. Journal of Immunology.198:1034-1046.