Robert Tigelaar, PhD
Professor of Dermatology and Immunobiology

Mentee:

Timothy Quan

Robert Tigelaar’s is interested in the immunobiology of gdT cells; immune system-skin interactions; immunopathogenesis of contact dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Currently, much of his effort is on dendritic epidermal T cells (DETC), cells which populate the skin of all normal strains of mice and express homogeneous Vgamma5/Vdelta1 TCRs lacking junctional (CDR3 region) diversity. Use of different strains of TCR delta-/- mice and selective reconstitution of such mice via adoptive transfer has recently shown that Vgamma5+ DETC, but not other gamma delta cells, down-regulate a variety of cutaneous inflammatory responses, including a spontaneous, localized, genetically-dependent, TCR alpha beta+ T cell-dependent, and environmentally-dependent, chronic dermatitis that shares several features of human atopic dermatitis. Over the past 28+ years, he has been directly involved in the mentoring of more then 70 predoctoral, doctoral, and postdoctoral students/fellows. Dr. Tigelaar has served in several different mentoring capacities including: serving on the committees for approximately eight Department of Dermatology junior faculty recipients of Mentored Clinical Scientists Training Awards (K08); as Co-director of the Yale Department of Dermatology's Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Training Program (T32); as Director of the Yale Skin Diseases Research Core Center (including directing that P30's Pilot/Feasibility Program. For the past three years, he has been co- Director of the Yale Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Skin Cancer, directing the Developmental Research Program and the Career Development Program.