John S. Spencer
Assistant Professor

Phone: 491-3525
Fax: 491-1815
Email: John.Spencer@Colostate.Edu
Office: B308 Microbiology Building
Lab: C310 Microbiology Building

 

Degrees

• B.S., University of Pennsylvania
• Ph.D., University of Hawaii

Research Interests

Immunology of M. leprae and M. tuberculosis, epitope mapping, proteomics, and diagnostic development

• With the support of the NIH/NIAID Leprosy Contract (Leprosy Research Support and Maintenance of an Armadillo Colony Post Genome Era Contract, N01 AI-25469; http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/mip/leprosy/), our laboratory provides reagents derived from armadillo grown M. leprae bacilli used to produce whole cells, subcellular antigen fractions, carbohydrate and glycolipid molecules (such as lipoarabinomannan and the M. leprae-specific phenolic glycolipid, PGL-I), DNA, as well as E. coli-derived recombinant proteins to researchers all over the world, particularly where leprosy is endemic.
• The recent completion of the genome sequences of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. leprae and other mycobacterial species provides a unique opportunity to study the proteomes of these organisms using high throughput methodologies, such as 2-D PAGE and LC-MS-MS. Our research is focused on the following: (1) defining B and T cell epitopes of immunologically important proteins of M. leprae and M. tuberculosis that are recognized in animal infection models and human disease; (2) define disease-state-specific antigens of tuberculoid and lepromatous leprosy patients using ELISA, Western blot and protein/peptide microarray techniques; (3) identify recombinant proteins and/or peptides that can be combined to develop a simple in vitro blood test towards the early diagnosis of leprosy; 4) examine T cell and serological responses to unique and low-homology M. leprae proteins identified by in silico analysis. Our overall goals of the above projects are geared to the development of improved diagnostics, vaccines, and further understand the cell mediated and humoral immune responses representing the spectrum of leprosy disease.

Selected Publications

Pub Med for Spencer JS.

• Groathouse, N. A., A. Amin, M. A. M. Marques, J. S. Spencer, R. Gelber, D. L. Knudson, P. J. Brennan, J. T. Belisle, and R. A. Slayden. 2006. Defining the humoral immune response in leprosy patients using protein arrays and identification of disease-state specific antigenic profiles. Infect. Immun. 74:6458-6466.
• Shih, L., S. Berg, A. Lee, J. S. Spencer, J. Zhang, V. Vissa, M. R. McNeil, K.-H. Khoo, and D. Chatterjee. 2006. The carboxy terminus of the EmbC mediates chain length extension of arabinan in lipoarabinomannan from Mycobacterium smegmatis. J. Biol. Chem. 281:19512-19526.
• Reece, S. T., G. Ireton, R. Mohamath, J. Guderian, W. Goto, R. Gelber, N. Groathouse, J. Spencer, P. Brennan, and S. G. Reed. 2006. ML0405 and ML2331 are antigens of Mycobacterium leprae with potential for diagnosis. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. 13:333-340.
• Spencer, J. S., H. M. Dockrell, H. J. Kim, M. A. M. Marques, D. L. Williams, M. V. B. S. Martins, M. L. F. Martins, M. C. B. S. Lima, E. N. Sarno, G. M. B. Pereira, H. Matos, L. S. Fonseca, E. P. Sampaio, T. H. M. Ottenhoff, A. Geluk, S.-N. Cho, N. G. Stoker, S. T. Cole, P. J. Brennan, and M. C. V. Pessolani. 2005. Identification of specific proteins and peptides in Mycobacterium leprae suitable for the selective diagnosis of leprosy. J. Immunol. 175:7930-7938.
• Geluk, A., M. R. Klein, K. L. M. C. Franken, K. E. van Meijgaarden, B. Wieles, K. C. Pereira, S. Buhrer-Sekula, P. R. Klatser, P. J. Brennan, J. S. Spencer, D. L. Williams, M. C. V. Pessolani, E. P. Sampaio, and T. H. M. Ottenhoff. 2005. A postgenomic approach to identify novel antigens of Mycobacterium leprae for improved immunodiagnosis of M. leprae infection. Infect. Immun. 73:5636-5644.
• Monot, M., N. Honore, T. Garnier, R. Araoz, J.-Y. Coppee, C. Lacroix, S. Sow, J. S. Spencer, R. W. Truman, D. L. Williams, R. Gelber, M. Virmond, B. Flageul, S.-N. Cho, B. Ji, I. Vasquez, A. P. Mondolfi, J. Convit, S. Young, V. Rasolofo, P. J. Brennan, and S. T. Cole. 2005. On the origin of leprosy. Science 308:1040-1042.
• Spencer, J. S., H. J. Kim, A. M. Marques, M. Gonzalez-Juarerro, M. C. B. S. Lima, V. D. Vissa, R. W. Truman, M. L. Gennaro, S.-N. Cho, S. T. Cole, and P. J. Brennan. 2004. Comparative analysis of B and T cell epitopes of the Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture filtrate protein-10. Infect. Immun. 72:3161-3170.
• Covert, B.A., J. S. Spencer, I. M. Orme, and J. T. Belisle. 2001. The application of proteomics in defining the T cell antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Proteomics 1:574-586.
• Marques, M. A. M., B. J. Espinosa, E. K. Xavier da Silveira, M. C. V. Pessolani, J. Perales, K. M. Dobos, J. T. Belisle, J. S. Spencer and P. J. Brennan. 2004. Proteomic analysis of Mycobacterium leprae subcellular fractions. Proteomics 4:2942-2953.
• Spencer, J. S., M. A. M. Marques, M. C. B. S. Lima, A. P. Junqueira-Kipnis, B. C. Gregory, R. W. Truman, and P. J. Brennan. 2002. The antigenic specificity of the ESAT-6 homologue of Mycobacterium leprae. Infect. Immun. 70:1010-1013.
• Spencer, J. S., J. H. Freed, and R. T. Kubo. 1993. Expression and function of mixed isotype class II molecules in normal mice. J. Immunol. 151:6822-6832.
• Spencer, J. S., and R. T. Kubo. 1989. Mixed isotype class II antigen expression. A novel class II molecule is expressed on a murine B cell lymphoma. J. Exp. Med. 169:625-640.