Seth Reighard, PhD, is a fourth-year medical student in his final year of training with in the UC MSTP. Seth is a student leader within the MSTP, previously serving as a student representative on the Steering Committee. Seth is also a proud father. Shortly before defending his PhD dissertation last year, Seth and his wife, Brittany, welcomed their son, Forrest! In his free time, Seth employs his musical talents and serves as the drummer in the MSTP student band, the Mudder Phudders.

While pursuing his PhD in Immunology, Seth and his PI, Stephen Waggoner, PhD, led a team of Cincinnati Children’s scientists in a discovery that has the potential to improve the care of patients with lupus. They engineering a chimeric antigen receptors (CAR), that when expressed by human NK cells, enables targeted elimination of T follicular helper (Tfh) cells without harming other types of T-cells.

There is excitement about the early signs of progress for this treatment, and there are plans to conduct further research and investigation.

“This is the first method to specifically remove an otherwise intractable population of harmful cells,” Dr. Waggoner said. “We think targeting them will be safe and clinically beneficial in multiple diseases. Our approach started with lupus because the disease is a leading cause of death in young women for which a cure is presently lacking.”

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(The above text includes excerpts from the originally published story from May 11, 2020 on CCHMC’s Research Horizons.)