Dr Ann Pullen
Senior Teaching Fellow
Director of Teaching
Admissions Tutor
School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine,
University of Bristol, Medical Sciences Building,
Bristol, BS8 1TD
phone: +44 (0)117 33 12025 (internal 12025)
email: a.m.pullen@bristol.ac.uk
Teaching and student support in Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Teaching is informed by the research carried out in the school, in the themes of Infection and Immunity, Cancer Biomarkers, and Tissue Engineering and Stem Cell Therapies. My main responsibility is the overseeing of all teaching and assessment of science undergraduate students on the variety of programmes that we offer. As Director of Teaching, I welcome students to contact me if they have questions or concerns.
The educational landscape is constantly changing and I strive to lead the staff of Cellular and Molecular Medicine to provide the best learning opportunity for our students. In addition to directing the undergraduate science programmes, I also have overarching responsibility for the teaching delivered by Cellular and Molecular Medicine staff for medical and dental students, as well as on the taught MSc programme in Transfusion and Transplantation Sciences. I chair the school Teaching Committee which meets regularly to discuss teaching policy and implementation.
I also serve as Admissions Tutor for our pool of undergraduate programmes. This ensures continuity from a potential applicant visiting on an Open Day, through the UCAS application process, during the years as an undergraduate student and on to graduation – and beyond. One of the great pleasures of my position is to select applicants with potential and then watch them learn and mature, and ultimately graduate with a University of Bristol BSc Honours degree.
Consistent with my interests in education, I also serve on faculty and university committees which focus on learning and teaching. One of my roles is to disseminate good practice to staff in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. Over the last year in collaboration with colleagues in Biochemistry and Learning Science Limited I spear-headed an exciting new initiative to introduce an eBiolabs Dynamic Laboratory Manual to support our first year practical teaching.
I am an immunologist and I teach immunology to undergraduate and postgraduate MSc students. The lectures I give to the final year undergraduate students build on my interests and previous research on T cell development and recognition.
Research interests
- T cell development in the thymus
- Thymic positive and negative selection
- Immune responses to viral and bacterial superantigens
- Molecular nature of superantigen recognition
- T cell development in the intestine
- Specificity and function of intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL)
Selected publications
- Herman, A., Khaznadar, T. and Pullen, A.M. (2002) Selective elimination of TCRαβ CD8αα IEL in transgenic mice expressing antigen in the small intestinal epithelium. Mucosal Immunology Update 10 (2&3).
- Pullen, A.M., Mueller, S.J., Sweenie, C.H., Sreckovic, S., Herman, A. and Hogarth, P.J. (2001) Mature intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) influence the maturation of IEL Precursors. Scandinavian Journal of Immunology 54 (supplement 1), 13.
- Page, S.T., Bogatzki, L., Hamerman, J.A., Malissen, M., Perlmutter, R.M. and Pullen, A.M. (1999) Differential effects of manipulating signalling in early T cell development in intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes and thymocytes. Intern. Immunol. 11, 169-177.
- Grigg, M.E., McMahon, C.W., Morkowski, S., Rudensky, A.Y. and Pullen, A.M.(1998) Mtv-1 superantigen traffics independently of MHC class II directly to the B cell surface by the exocytic pathway. J. Virol. 72, 2577-2588.
- McMahon, C.W., Traxler, B., Grigg, M.E. and Pullen, A.M. (1998) Transposon-mediated random insertions and site-directive mutagenesis prevent the trafficking of a mouse mammary tumor virus superantigen. Virology 243, 354-365.
- Page, S.T., Bogatzki, L., Hamerman, J.A., Sweenie, C.H., Hogarth, P.J., Malissen, M., Perlmutter, R.M. and Pullen, A.M.(1998) Intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes include precursors committed to the T cell receptor αβ lineage. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 95, 9459-9464.
- Hamerman, J.A., Page, S.T. and Pullen, A.M.(1997) Distinct methylation states of the CD8 β gene in peripheral T cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes. J. Immunol. 159, 1240-1246.
- Page, S.T., van Oers, N.S.C., Perlmutter, R.M., Weiss, A. andPullen, A.M. (1997) Differential contribution of Lck and Fyn protein tyrosine kinases to intraepithelial lymphocyte development. Eur. J. Immunol. 27, 554-562.
- McMahon, C.W., Bogatzki, L.Y. and Pullen, A.M. (1997) Mouse mammary tumor virus superantigens require N-linked glycosylation for effective presentation to T cells. Virology 228, 161-176.
- Pullen, A.M. and Bogatzki, L.Y. (1996) Receptors on T cells escaping superantigen-mediated negative selection lack special beta-chain junctional region characteristics. J. Immunol. 156: 1865-1872.
- Morishima, C., Norby-Slycord, C., McConnell, K.R., Finch, R.J., Nelson, A.J., Farr, A.G., and Pullen, A.M. (1994) Expression of two structurally identical viral superantigens results in thymic elimination at distinct developmental stages. J. Immunol. 153: 5091-5103.
- Pullen, A.M., Choi, Y., Kushnir, E., Kappler, J. and Marrack, P. (1992) The open reading frames in the 3’ long terminal repeats of several mouse mammary tumor virus integrants encode Vβ3-specific Superantigens. J. Exp. Med. 175: 41-47.
- Pullen, A.M., Bill, J., Kubo, R.T., Marrack, P. and Kappler, J.W. (1991) Analysis of the interactions site for the self superantigen M1s-1a on T Cell receptor Vβ. J. Exp. Med. 173:1183-1192.
- Pullen, A.M., Potts, W., Wakeland, E.K., Kappler, J.W. and Marrack, P. (1990) Surprisingly uneven distribution of the T cell receptor Vβ repertoire in wild mice. J. Exp. Med. 171:49-62
- Pullen, A.M., Wade, T., Marrack, P., and Kappler, J.W. (1990) Identification of the region of the T cell receptor β-chain which interacts with the self superantigen, Mls 1a. Cell 61:1365-1374.
- Pullen, A.M., Marrack, P.C. and Kappler, J.W. (1989) Evidence that Mls-2 antigens shapes the T cell repertoire. J. Immunol. 142:3033-3037.
- Berg, L.J., Fazekas de St. Groth, B., Pullen, A.M. and Davis, M.M. (1989) Phenotypic differences between αβ versus β T-cell receptor transgenic mice undergoing negative selection. Nature 340:559-562.
- Berg, L.J., Pullen, A.M., Fazekas de St. Groth, B., Mathis, D., Benoist, C., and Davis, M.M. (1989) Antigen/MHC specific T cells are preferentially exported from the thymus in the presence of their MHC ligand. Cell 58:1035-1046.
- White, J., Herman, A., Pullen, A.M., Kappler, J.W. and Marrack, P.C. (1989) The Vβ-specific superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxin B: stimulation of mature T cells and clonal deletion in neonatal mice. Cell 56:27-35.
- Pullen, A.M., Marrack, P.C. and Kappler, J.W. (1988) The T-cell repertoire is heavily influenced by tolerance to polymorphic self-antigens. Nature 355:796-801.