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Dr. Kevin Maisey

Charge: 
Biology Department. Comparative Immunology Laboratory
E-mail: 
kevin.maisey@usach.cl
Biography: 

Biochemist and Comparative Immunologist,  Associate Researcher at the Aquaculture  Biotechnology Center of the University of Santiago  de Chile. Biochemist from the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (2000) and Doctor of Biotechnology (2016), from the same University.  His doctoral thesis focused on the study of the  phenotypic and functional characteristics of  immune cells in salmonids. Author and co-author  of numerous articles on Immunology in humans,  murine and fish. Since 2002 he has been a professor in the  Department of Biology at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile where he develops his first  studies in Reproductive Immunology. Since 2009  he has been dedicated to the area of fish  immunology, particularly salmonids. Member of the  Sociedad de Biología de Chile (SBCh), Asociación  Chilena de Inmunología (ASOCHIN, Founding  Partner), The International Society of Fish and  Shellfish Immunology (ISFSI) and The  International Society of Developmental and  Comparative Immunology (ISDCI). He was  Honorary Research Assistant at the Scottish Fish  Immunology Research Center (SFIRC) at the  University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

 
Research Area: 

Currently, he leads the Comparative Immunology  Laboratory integrating three research areas;  Mechanisms of the lymphocyte response against  bacterial pathogens using P. salmonis and A.  salmonicida as a model, Molecular and cellular  characterization of the rainbow trout TCR  complex, and Development of molecular markers  for the identification and functional characterization of subpopulations of immune  cells in salmonids; all this, with the purpose of  knowing in depth the molecular and cellular  biology of the immune cells of salmonids and their  interaction with pathogens that affect the Chilean  aquaculture industry.

Projects: 
  • Fondecyt Iniciación Project 11171057. Unraveling  the early signaling pathways in T cell activation in  salmonids: Characterization of T Cell Receptor CD3 Complex. (2017 – 2021).
  • Strategic Investment Fund. Ministry of Economy.  Program for Sanitary Management in Aquaculture  FIE-2015-V014. Study of the immune status of  Salmo salar under field conditions and its  relationship with infection by Piscirickettsia  salmonis and bases for the incorporation of  immunomodulatory peptides in the diet as new  drugs against the pathogen and piscirickettsiosis.  No. 201708070149 (2017 – 2019).
  • Mapping fish CD4 T cell subsets for vaccine  improvement. RCUK-Conicyt MR/N02625X/1.  (2016 - 2018).
  • CORFO Project 13CTI-21527 (2014–2018).  Technological Consortium for the Diagnosis and  Prevention of Communicable Diseases in the  Aquaculture Sector (USACH). Sub-Project KM-9:  Evaluation of the immune response of salmonid T  lymphocytes against pathogens.
  • CORFO Project 13CTI-21527 (2014–2018).  Technological Consortium for the Diagnosis and  Prevention of Communicable Diseases in the  Aquaculture Sector (USACH). Sub-Project KM-10:  Development of new markers of B cells in  salmonids – Tools to evaluate cell protection and  the rational design of vaccines against intracellular pathogens.
     
Latest Publications: 

-Flores-Kossack C, Montero R, Köllner B, Maisey K. 2020. Chilean aquaculture and the new challenges: Pathogens, immune response, vaccination and fish diversification. Fish Shellfish Immunol. doi: 10.1016/j.fsi.2019.12.093.

-Sequeida A, Castillo A, Cordero N, Wong V, Montero R, Vergara C, Valenzuela B, Vargas D, Valdés N, Morales J, Tello M, Sandino AM, Maisey K, Imarai M. 2020. The Atlantic salmon interleukin 4/13 receptor family: Structure, tissue distribution and modulation of gene expression. Fish Shellfish Immunol. doi: 10.1016/j.fsi.2019.11.030.

-Vallejos-Vidal E, Reyes-Cerpa S, Rivas-Pardo JA, Maisey K, Yáñez JM, Valenzuela H, Cea PA, Castro-Fernandez V, Tort L, Sandino AM, Imarai M, Reyes-López FE. 2020.  Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) Mining and Their Effect on the Tridimensional Protein Structure Prediction in a Set of Immunity-Related Expressed Sequence Tags (EST) in Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar).

-Front Genet. Feb 27;10:1406. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2019.01406.

-Wang T, Hu Y, Wangkahart E, Liu F, Wang A, Zahran E, Maisey K, Liu M, Xu Q, Imarai M, Secombes CJ. 2018. Interleukin (IL)-2 is a key regulator of Th1 and Th2 cytokine expression in fish: functional characterisation of two divergent IL2 paralogues in salmonids. Front Immunol. 26; 9: 1683.

-Hu Y, Maisey K, Subramani PA, Liu F, Flores-Kossack C, Imarai M, Secombes CJ, Wang T. 2018. Characterisation of rainbow trout peripheral blood leucocytes prepared by hypotonic lysis of erythrocytes, and analysis of their phagocytic activity, proliferation and response to PAMPs and proinflammatory cytokines. Dev Comp Immunol. 88:104-113.

-Sequeida A, Maisey K, Imarai M. 2017. Interleukin 4/13 Receptors: an overview of genes, expression and functional role in teleost fish. Cytokine & Growth Factors Review. pii: S1359-6101(17)30140-5.

-Sanhueza L, Melo R, Montero R, Maisey K, Mendoza L, Wilkens M. 2017. Synergistic interactions between phenolic compounds identified in grape pomace extract with antibiotics of different classes against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. PLoS One, 12(2): e0172273.

-Maisey K, Montero R, Christodoulides M. 2017. Vaccines for piscirickettsiosis (salmonid rickettsial septicaemia, SRS): the Chile perspective. Expert Rev Vaccines, 3: 215-228.