Jhon Enterina is awarded prestigious Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship
A love and curiosity for biology started Enterina’s journey toward working with B cells — research with important implications in the area of vaccine development, especially for infections such as HIV, malaria and TB, where no effective vaccines are available.
Jhon Enterina is a PhD candidate in the Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta. He is a winner of the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship — the most prestigious graduate award administered by the U of A — for his work on the body’s production of different types of antibodies to build immunity to pathogens.
We caught up with Enterina to learn more about him and his research.
What inspired you to study medicine?
I didn't really have a particular interest in medicine but I fell in love with biology. Growing up in the Philippines there was not a single day that I wouldn’t encounter a strange-looking bug, a melodious bird or brightly coloured starfish while walking by the beach. Their beauty, complexity and unique behaviours are quite fascinating to me and I have always been curious how these creatures evolved to what they are today and how they learn to survive and thrive in their environment.
I had amazing science teachers in high school. They were the first people who introduced me to research and taught me how to do science the right way. They rekindled my enthusiasm and love for biology, research and science in general, and inspired me to pursue further studies in chemistry and life sciences.
If you were talking about your research to family or friends who don’t work in your field, how would you describe it?
I study a major type of white blood cells in our body commonly known as B cells. B cells manufacture antibodies, which are protein molecules that help eliminate viruses and bacteria during infection. While we already know the importance that these cells play in our immune system, it is not fully understood how a B cell decides to produce antibodies for the rest of its lifetime or become a memory B cell. The latter is an important mechanism that our immune system does to guard us from the same or a mutated version of the pathogen.
Typically our B cells produce antibodies that are very specific to the pathogen they encounter. These antibodies are good at eliminating that pathogen but less likely to recognize a variant of the same pathogen. However, a memory B cell can react to the pathogen variant and mount a protective response. This is one explanation why vaccines from the ancestral pathogen can still provide some level of protection to variants of the pathogen.
My study focuses on the sugars that coat B cells. We know B cells modify their sugar coating during an infection but we do not know why and if that is important. In my work, we found that B cells change their sugar coating to improve their ability to communicate with other immune cells. We also found that changing the sugar coating is important in producing high quality antibodies. Currently, I am working on how these sugars instruct B cells to produce antibodies or become a memory cell.
What led you to this area of research? Why is it important to you, what problem do you hope it will solve?
B cells are an important class of white blood cells, not just for their ability to produce antibodies during infection, but also in their involvement in many diseases such as autoimmune disorders, cancer, and neurodegeneration. This complexity of B cells is quite intriguing, which is one of the reasons I focused on studying these cells for my PhD research. My study has identified that the sugar coating on B cells play an essential role in the quality of antibodies they produce and their ability to communicate with other immune cells. This finding has important implications in the area of vaccine research, especially for infections such as HIV, malaria and TB, where no effective vaccines are available. In future studies, we aim at developing a new vaccine strategy where we can further modify the sugar coating on B cells during vaccination to potentially mount a more potent and effective antibody response.
What does it mean to you to be awarded the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship?
I am extremely honoured to receive the Izaak Walton Killam doctoral scholarship from a pool of very talented PhD students. Winning this prestigious award is a validation that I am working on something important and a recognition of all the hard work that my colleagues and I put into this project. The generous funding from this scholarship will help me focus my time to further my research.
When do you hope to complete your PhD?
I expect to graduate in fall 2023.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
After finishing my PhD, I will most likely apply for a postdoctoral position in either academia or industry to continue doing immunology-related research.