Rita B Effros
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, USA

Rita B. Effros, Ph.D. holder, is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and is a Member of the UCLA AIDS Institute. She received her Ph.D. degree in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in immunity to influenza, which she later studied in the context of aging. Her adaptation of the fibroblast cell culture model of replicative senescence to the immune system has led to the first demonstration that T lymphocytes with characteristics of replicative senescence accumulate in vivo during human aging and exert pleiotropic effects on multiple organ systems. A UCLA Faculty Member since 1984, Dr. Effros is a major force in undergraduate gerontology education, having developed an interdisciplinary year-long honors course for Freshman, entitled “Frontiers of human aging: biomedical, psychosocial and policy perspectives.” She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and was recently elected as the 2007 GSA Biological Science Chair. She has lectured at numerous international and national gerontology and immunology meetings, including GSA and Gordon Conferences, and has been twice awarded the AFAR-Eweson Endowed Lectureship. She is a Member of the NIH “Aging Systems and Geriatrics” Study Section, and also serves on the editorial board of “Experimental Gerontology,” “Mechanisms of Ageing and Development,” and “Ageing: Clinical and Experimental Research.”

Biography Updated on 30 April 2007

Articles in Scholarly Journals [Incomplete List]

  1. Role of T lymphocyte replicative senescence in vaccine efficacy
    Vaccine, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 599–604, 2007
  2. Telomerase induction in T cells: A cure for aging and disease?
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 42, no. 5, pp. 416–420, 2007
  3. Decreased perforin and granzyme B expression in senescent HIV-1-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes
    Virology, vol. 332, no. 1, pp. 16–19, 2005
  4. Immunity & Ageing, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 7, 2005
  5. The role of CD8+ T-cell replicative senescence in human aging
    Immunological Reviews, vol. 205, no. 1, pp. 147–157, 2005
  6. T Cell Replicative Senescence Pleiotropic Effects on Human Aging
    Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1019, no. 1, pp. 123–126, 2004
  7. Replicative senescence of CD8 T cells: potential effects on cancer immune surveillance and immunotherapy
    Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy, vol. 53, no. 10, 2004
  8. Replicative senescence of CD8 T cells: effect on human ageing
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 517–524, 2004
  9. Age related microsatellite instability in T cells from healthy individuals
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 507–515, 2004
  10. Is immunosenescence infectious?
    Trends in Immunology, vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 406–410, 2004
  11. From Hayflick to Walford: the role of T cell replicative senescence in human aging
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 885–890, 2004
  12. Impact of the Hayflick Limit on T cell responses to infection: lessons from aging and HIV disease
    Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, vol. 125, no. 2, pp. 103–106, 2004
  13. Problems and solutions to the development of vaccines in the elderly
    Immunology and Allergy Clinics of North America, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 41–55, 2003
  14. In vitro senescence of immune cells
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 38, no. 11-12, pp. 1243–1249, 2003
  15. Genetic alterations in the ageing immune system: impact on infection and cancer
    Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, vol. 124, no. 1, pp. 71–77, 2003
  16. The flotillins are integral membrane proteins in lipid rafts that contain TCR-associated signaling components: implications for T-cell activation
    Clinical Immunology, vol. 108, no. 2, pp. 138–151, 2003
  17. CD8 T Cells and Aging
    Critical Reviews in Immunology, vol. 23, no. 1-2, pp. 45–64, 2003
  18. Differential Impairment of Lytic and Cytokine Functions in Senescent Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes
    Journal of Virology, vol. 77, no. 5, pp. 3077–3083, 2003
  19. Replicative Senescence: The Final Stage of Memory T Cell Differentiation?
    Current HIV Research, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 153–165, 2003
  20. Telomere shortening in T cells correlates with Alzheimer's disease status
    Neurobiology of Aging, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 77–84, 2003
  21. Divergent Telomerase and CD28 Expression Patterns in Human CD4 and CD8 T Cells Following Repeated Encounters with the Same Antigenic Stimulus
    Clinical Immunology, vol. 105, no. 2, pp. 117–125, 2002
  22. Simultaneous flow cytometric analysis of two cell surface markers, telomere length, and DNA content
    Cytometry, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 96–105, 2002
  23. Hematopoietic cells and replicative senescence
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 37, no. 2-3, pp. 191–196, 2002
  24. Long-term immunological memory against viruses
    Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, vol. 121, no. 1-3, pp. 161–171, 2001
  25. A multidisciplinary approach to immunity and ageing: ImAginEering
    Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, vol. 121, no. 1-3, pp. 1–4, 2001
  26. Immune effects of hormone replacement therapy in post-menopausal women
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 311–326, 2001
  27. Response Differences between Human CD4+ and CD8+ T-Cells during CD28 Costimulation: Implications for Immune Cell-Based Therapies and Studies Related to the Expansion of Double-Positive T-Cells during Aging
    Clinical Immunology, vol. 96, no. 3, pp. 187–197, 2000
  28. Costimulatory mechanisms in the elderly
    Vaccine, vol. 18, no. 16, pp. 1661–1665, 2000
  29. Ageing of lymphocytes and lymphocytes in the aged
    Immunology Today, vol. 21, no. 10, pp. 515–521, 2000
  30. Telomeres and HIV disease
    Microbes and Infection, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 69–76, 2000
  31. Resistance to apoptosis in human CD8+ T cells that reach replicative senescence after multiple rounds of antigen-specific proliferation?
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 633–644, 1999
  32. T cells and aging (update February 1999)
    Frontiers in Bioscience, vol. 4, no. 1-3, p. d216, 1999
  33. Nature Biotechnology, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 313–313, 1999
  34. CD28 Expression in T Cell Aging and Human Longevity
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 267–282, 1998
  35. Replicative Senescence in the Immune System: Impact of the Hayflick Limit on T-Cell Function in the Elderly
    The American Journal of Human Genetics, vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 1003–1007, 1998
  36. The accumulation of non-replicative, non-functional, senescent T cells with age is avoided in calorically restricted mice by an enhancement of T cell apoptosis
    Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, vol. 93, no. 1-3, pp. 25–33, 1997
  37. Calorie restriction inhibits the age-related dysregulation of the cytokines TNF-a and IL-6 in C3B10RF1 mice
    Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, vol. 93, no. 1-3, pp. 87–94, 1997
  38. Loss of CD28 expression on T lymphocytes: A marker of replicative senescence
    Developmental & Comparative Immunology, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 471–478, 1997
  39. Evidence of enhanced type 2 immune response and impaired upregulation of a type 1 response in frail elderly nursing home residents
    Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, vol. 94, no. 1-3, pp. 7–16, 1997
  40. Replicative senescence of T cells: does the Hayflick Limit lead to immune exhaustion?
    Immunology Today, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 450–454, 1997
  41. Insights on immunological aging derived from the T lymphocyte cellular senescence model
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 31, no. 1-2, pp. 21–27, 1996
  42. Mechanism of Telomerase Induction during T Cell Activation
    Experimental Cell Research, vol. 228, no. 1, pp. 58–64, 1996
  43. Decline in CD28+ T cells in centenarians and in long-term T cell cultures: A possible cause for both in vivo and in vitro immunosenescence
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 601–609, 1994
  44. In Vitro Cellular Aging in T-Lymphocyte Cultures: Analysis of DNA Content and Cell Size
    Experimental Cell Research, vol. 207, no. 1, pp. 131–135, 1993
  45. The in vitro senescence of human T lymphocytes: Failure to divide is not associated with a loss of cytolytic activity or memory T cell phenotype
    Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, vol. 67, no. 1-2, pp. 173–185, 1993
  46. Human T lymphocytes possess a limited in vitro life span
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 177–187, 1989
  47. Neonatal T cells as a model system to study the possible in vitro senescence of lymphocytes
    Experimental Gerontology, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 307–316, 1987
  48. The effect of age on the antigen-presenting mechanism in limiting dilution precursor cell frequency analysis
    Cellular Immunology, vol. 88, no. 2, pp. 531–539, 1984
  49. T cell cultures and the Hayflick limit
    Human Immunology, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 49–65, 1984
  50. Strong HLA-DR expression in T cell cultures after activation is necessary for IL-2-dependent proliferation
    Human Immunology, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 249–254, 1983
  51. The immune response of aged mice to influenza: Diminished T-cell proliferation, interleukin 2 production and cytotoxicity
    Cellular Immunology, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 298–305, 1983
  52. Blocking of the induction and expression of immunologically functional T lymphocytes by rat antiactivated T-cell serum
    Cellular Immunology, vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 311–323, 1982
  53. Characteristics of secondary cytotoxic T-cell responses in mice infected with influenza A viruses
    Cellular Immunology, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 345–353, 1978
  54. Heterogeneity of the Cytotoxic Response of Thymus-Derived Lymphocytes after Immunization with Influenza Viruses
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 74, no. 3, pp. 1209–1213, 1977
  55. Generation of both cross-reactive and virus-specific T-cell populations after immunization with serologically distinct influenza A viruses
    Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 145, no. 3, pp. 557–568, 1977