Tanya Freedman, PhD
3-190 Wallin Medical Biosciences Building
2101 6th St SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States
Dr. Freedman is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology with a research laboratory in the Center for Immunology. She is also a member of the Masonic Cancer Center's Cancer Immunology Program and the Center for Autoimmune Diseases Research. She received her AB degree with honors in Biochemistry from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. She earned her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology with a focus on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, studying allosteric regulation of Ras-activating proteins under the mentorship of Drs. John Kuriyan and Susan Marqusee. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in immune-cell signaling in the laboratory of Dr. Arthur Weiss at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Freedman's current research is focused on postive- and negative-regulatory signaling pathways in immune cells with a special emphasis on protein tyrosine kinases.
Expertise
Immunology
Innate-immune signaling
Cancer immune microenvironment
Autoimmune disease
Biochemistry
Awards & Recognition
NIH R01 Grant AR073966 (2018)
Travel Award, FASEB Science Research Conferences (2018)
Travel Award, FASEB Science Research Conferences (2017)
NIH R03 Grant AI130978 (2017)
NIH T32 Training Award (Predoctoral Student Ben Brian) DA007097 (2016)
NIH F32 NRSA Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship F32 AI082926 (2011)
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, University of California, Berkeley (2004)
Copeland-Gross Biology Prize, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME (1999)
Howard Hughes Medical Institute REU Fellowship (1998)
NIH T32 Training Award (Postdoctoral Fellow J.T. Greene) CA009138 (2020)
Dr. Marvin and Hadassah Bacaner Research Award in Pharmacology (Predoctoral Student Ben Brian), UMN Medical School (2020)
Frederick E. Shideman Research Proposal Award (Predoctoral Student Ben Brian), Department of Pharmacology (2019)
J. Jacob Kaplan Award in Clinical or Basic Medical Research (Predoctoral Student Ben Brian), UMN Medical School (2020)
Veneziale-Steer Award for Research in Cellular Growth Regulation (Predoctoral Student Ben Brian), UMN Medical School (2020)
Education
Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology
Faculty, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology (MICaB) Ph.D. Graduate Program
Faculty, MS and PhD Programs in Pharmacology
Faculty, PhD Program in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics
Preceptor, Medical Scientist Training Program (Combined MD/PhD Training Program)
Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California, San Francisco
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, Molecular and Cell Biology
AB, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, Biochemistry
Research
Research Summary/Interests
Immune cells are tuned exquisitely to identify pathogens and avoid hypersensitivity. In macrophages Src-family tyrosine kinases (LynA, LynB, Hck, and Fgr) regulate a size sensing mechanism based on their ability to nucleate clustering of ITAM-coupled receptors. Under normal circumstances small debris cannot trigger macrophage activation, but this regulatory process can be subverted in inflamed tissues. We are studying how the Src-family kinases, especially LynA, tune the sensitivity of macrophages and other immune cells to triggering and the regulation or dysregulation of these processes in autoimmune disease, infection, and breast cancer.