Richard A. Goldsby

Professor of Biology, Amherst College and Adjunct Professor of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Massachusetts

Email: ragoldsby@amherst.edu
R. Goldsby Biology Dept Website

Ph.D.: University of California at Berkeley
Honors: John Woodruff Simpson Lectureship

Somatic Hypermutation of Immunoglobulin Genes; Immunoglobulin Diversification in Cattle

Diversity is the hallmark of the immune system and somatic mutation generates significant antibody diversity in a number of species including humans, rodents, and cattle. The mechanism responsible for the somatic hypermutation of antibody genes remains one of the unsolved problems of immunology. Work in my laboratory is directed toward the establishment of cell culture systems that will allow the observation and analysis of this process in vitro. Because the ileal Peyer’s patch (IPP) of cattle is the site of massive (involving up to >1X10E11 B cells) developmentally regulated, extensive somatic diversification of antibody genes, it is a principal target of our studies. In collaboration with the Osborne laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, we conduct a continuing program to understand the basic mechanisms of antibody diversification in ruminants and to characterize the bovine immunoglobulin heavy and light immunoglobulin loci.

Representative publications:

Immunization induces antigen-specific human antibody in cloned human artificial chromosome transchromosomic cattle. (2003). Choi Y., Sathlyaseelan, S., Kasinathan, P., Haffer K., Kuroiwa, Y., Jao, J., Duteau, A., Osborne, Ishida, I., Robl, J., and Goldsby, R..

Kuroiwa Y, Kasinathan P, Choi YJ, Naeem R, Tomizuka K, Sullivan EJ, Knott JG, Duteau A, Goldsby RA, Osborne BA, Ishida I and Robl JM (2002). Cloned transchromosomic calves expressing human immunoglobulin genes.

Collas, P., R. Cline, H. B. Landsverk, W. R. Hein, R. A. Goldsby, B. A. Osborne and T. Landsverk (2002). "DNA-containing extracellular 50-nm particles in the ileal Peyer's patch of sheep." Eur J Cell Biol 81(2): 69-76.

Jeong, Y., B. A. Osborne and R. A. Goldsby (2001). "Early Vlambda diversification in sheep." Immunology 103(1): 26-34.

Wang, Z., M. Raifu, M. Howard, L. Smith, D. Hansen, R. Goldsby and D. Ratner (2000). "Universal PCR amplification of mouse immunoglobulin gene variable regions: the design of degenerate primers and an assessment of the effect of DNA polymerase 3' to 5' exonuclease activity." J Immunol Methods 233(1-2): 167-77.

Lucier, M. R., R. E. Thompson, J. Waire, A. W. Lin, B. A. Osborne and R. A. Goldsby (1998). "Multiple sites of V lambda diversification in cattle." J Immunol 161(10): 5438-44

Lucier, M., Thompson, R., Osborne, B.A. and Goldsby, R.A. (1998) Ig diversification mechanisms in cattle. J. Immunol., in press.

Meyer, A., Parng. C.L., Hansal, S., Goldsby, R.A. and Osborne, B.A. (1997) Immunoglobulin gene diversification in cattle. International Review of Immunology 15, 165.

Lin, A.W., Usera, M.A., Barrett, T.J. and Goldsby, R.A. (1996) Application of random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis to differentiate strains of Salmonella enteritidis. J. Clin. Microbiol. 34, 870.

Parng C.L., Hansal, S., Goldsby, R.A. and Osborne, B.A. (1996) Gene conversion contributes to Ig light chain diversity in cattle. J. Immunol. 157, 5478.

Zheng, B., Han, S., Zhu, Q., Goldsby, R.A. and Kelsoe, G. (1996) Alternative pathways for the selection of antigen-specific peripheral T cells. Nature 384, 263.