Ignacio Sanz, MD

Initially trained in Molecular Immunology in the laboratory of Dr. Capra at Southwestern Medical School, Dr. Sanz has extensive expertise in the study of human autoantibodies and B-cells.  He has performed pioneering studies of B-cell depletion in human SLE.  In the process, his lab has developed great expertise in the multi-chromatic FCM analysis of human B-cells, generation of monoclonal antibodies from single cells and more recently, next generation sequencing. 

For more than a decade, Dr. Sanz has been the director of one of only 8 NIH-funded Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence in the nation as well as the Director of the University of Rochester Program for Biodefense of Immunocompromised Populations from 2006-2011.  He is also the Principal Investigator of a large multi-institutional Program Project investigating B cells in Health and Disease and was the Director of the Rochester Center for Translational Immunology and Infectious Diseases from 2009-2012.  He was a member of the NIAID Allergy and Immunology Study section and has also participated in multiple special review panels and ad-hoc reviews.  He has been an invited participant in special workshops on Immunotherapy (NIAID); HIV (NIAID); and Type 1 Diabetes (NIDKK).  He is also a member of the ACE and the Immune Tolerance Network Steering Committees and Chair of the ACE Mechanistic Studies Committee.