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Home > Healthcare Professionals > Research Awards > 2008 Research Awards > Dr. Benoit Callendret

Dr. Benoit C. Callendret, D.V.M., PhD

Dean Thiel Memorial Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio. "Immunity Against Hepatitis C Virus Upon Superinfection."


Dr. Benoit Callendret, D.V.M., PhD

One of the great mysteries about hepatitis C is why some individuals can clear the virus on their own while others cannot. In those who cannot, chronic infection occurs. What goes wrong in the immune response of these individuals? The human immune system is normally highly adaptable: when it encounters a new virus, it starts producing an enormous number of T-cells – a type of white blood cell – that specifically target and attack other cells infected by the virus. Not surprisingly, a liver infected with hepatitis C virus contains large numbers of T-cells that specifically target that virus. In the case of a chronically infected person, these T-cells may stay in the liver for years but, for reasons that are not clear, fail to do their job adequately.

Past researchers have investigated this failure by examining T cells extracted from a chronically infected liver. Outside the body, these cells indeed appear to lack some features that would make them fully functional. Dr. Callendret intends to take this research a step further and observe how antiviral T-cells behave inside the liver of a living organism. If the liver is exposed a second time to a different hepatitis C virus strain, will the T-cells respond by multiplying and becoming more active? The results of Dr. Callendret’s project will produce insights into the role and effectiveness of T-cells in individuals with chronic hepatitis C infection, and especially in those that are exposed more than once to hepatitis C.

Page updated: August 26th, 2008