Adam Schrum

Adam Schrum

Adam Schrum

Associate Professor, Biological and Biomedical Engineering

M627 Medical Sciences Building

Phone: 573-771-7411

Email: schruma@health.missouri.edu

Chemical and Biomedical Engineering

Biography

The laboratory of Adam G. Schrum, PhD, is focused on physiologic signaling networks and how they function in molecular and cellular immunity. A main goal is to increase understanding of how T cells of the immune system decide whether to destroy or tolerate healthy, infected or cancerous tissue, with an eye toward applying lessons learned to design immunotherapies. Current projects focus on the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) and how its structure, multi-subunit composition and biochemical functions operate throughout the course of immune responses. Downstream of TCR triggering, many other proteins and pathways involved in T cell signaling cooperate to compose a network with emergent properties to determine immune fate. Using cellular, molecular, biochemical and proteomic techniques, the lab examines these processes in the context of T cell responses during development, infection, autoimmunity and cancer. The team recently published a multiplex microsphere-based approach to generate a new type of combinatorial network signature of signaling proteins, termed PiSCES. Using this system, signaling protein network profiles were generated from small skin biopsy samples donated by autoimmune or control patients. A unique signature of T cell biochemical activity was identified to be associated with autoimmune lesions, an observation that may lead to identification of new molecular targets for therapy. A podcast explaining the significance of the work was commissioned and produced by the publisher (AAAS) and is freely available.

Education

PhD from the University of Pennsylvania

Technical Focus

Autoimmunity and tolerance

Biochemistry

Bioengineering

Cancer biology

Immune response to pathogens

Immunology

Network biology

News & Publications

Smith SE, Neier SC, Reed BK, Davis TR, Sinnwell JP, Eckel-Passow JE, Sciallis GF, Wieland CN, Torgerson RR, Gil D, Neuhauser C, Schrum AG.
Schrum AG, Neier SC, VanHook AM
Gilhar A, Schrum AG, Etzioni A, Waldmann H, Paus R.
Hoffmann MM, Molina-Mendiola C, Nelson AD, Parks CA, Reyes EE, Hansen MJ, Rajagopalan G, Pease LR, Schrum AG, Gil D