University of Pittsburgh Department of Cell Biology

Watson Lab

My primary interest is in developing imaging tool sets for acquiring and manipulating massive high-resolution biologic volumes. These tools include ribbon-scanning confocal microscopy, tissue clearing approaches, and computing technologies for distribution, storage and processing of multi-terabyte-sized imaging data. I have a long standing interest in the pathogenesis and immunity of arboviruses, including yellow fever virus, dengue virus, and chikungunya virus.
  1. Watson AM, Rose AH, Gibson GA, Gardner CL, Sun C, Reed DS, Lam LKM, St Croix CM, Strick PL, Klimstra WB, Watkins SC. Ribbon scanning confocal for high-speed high-resolution volume imaging of brain.. PLoS One. 2017;12(7):e0180486. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180486. PubMed PMID: 28686653;
  2. Watson AM, Klimstra WB. T Cell-Mediated Immunity towards Yellow Fever Virus and Useful Animal Models.. Viruses. 2017 Apr 11;9(4):. pii: E77. doi: 10.3390/v9040077. PubMed PMID: 28398253;
  3. Troupin A, Shirley D, Londono-Renteria B, Watson AM, McHale C, Hall A, Hartstone-Rose A, Klimstra WB, Gomez G, Colpitts TM. A Role for Human Skin Mast Cells in Dengue Virus Infection and Systemic Spread.. J Immunol. 2016 Dec 1;197(11):4382-4391. . PubMed PMID: 27799312;
  4. Conway MJ, Londono-Renteria B, Troupin A, Watson AM, Klimstra WB, Fikrig E, Colpitts TM. Aedes aegypti D7 Saliva Protein Inhibits Dengue Virus Infection.. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016 Sep;10(9):e0004941. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004941. PubMed PMID: 27632170;
  5. Watson AM, Lam LK, Klimstra WB, Ryman KD. The 17D-204 Vaccine Strain-Induced Protection against Virulent Yellow Fever Virus Is Mediated by Humoral Immunity and CD4+ but not CD8+ T Cells.. PLoS Pathog. 2016 Jul;12(7):e1005786. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005786. PubMed PMID: 27463517;
  6. Tree MO, McKellar DR, Kieft KJ, Watson AM, Ryman KD, Conway MJ. Insect-specific flavivirus infection is restricted by innate immunity in the vertebrate host.. Virology. 2016 Oct;497():81-91. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2016.07.005. PubMed PMID: 27433779;
  7. Sun C, Gardner CL, Watson AM, Ryman KD, Klimstra WB. Stable, high-level expression of reporter proteins from improved alphavirus expression vectors to track replication and dissemination during encephalitic and arthritogenic disease.. J Virol. 2014 Feb;88(4):2035-46. doi: 10.1128/JVI.02990-13. PubMed PMID: 24307590;
  8. Conway MJ, Watson AM, Colpitts TM, Dragovic SM, Li Z, Wang P, Feitosa F, Shepherd DT, Ryman KD, Klimstra WB, Anderson JF, Fikrig E. Mosquito saliva serine protease enhances dissemination of dengue virus into the mammalian host.. J Virol. 2014 Jan;88(1):164-75. doi: 10.1128/JVI.02235-13. PubMed PMID: 24131723;
  9. Watson AM, Mylin LM, Thompson MM, Schell TD. Modification of a tumor antigen determinant to improve peptide/MHC stability is associated with increased immunogenicity and cross-priming a larger fraction of CD8+ T cells.. J Immunol. 2012 Dec 15;189(12):5549-60. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1102221. PubMed PMID: 23175697;
  10. Tatum AM, Watson AM, Schell TD. Direct presentation regulates the magnitude of the CD8+ T cell response to cell-associated antigen through prolonged T cell proliferation.. J Immunol. 2010 Sep 1;185(5):2763-72. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.0903920. PubMed PMID: 20660711;
Postal Address:
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Cell Biology
S221 BST-South
Telephone:  412-648-9796  
Fax:   
Email:  alan.watson@pitt.edu