K. Kai McKinstry
Assistant Professor
University of Central Florida
USA
Biography
Dr. K. Kai McKinstry received his PhD from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada in 2005. He completed his postdoctoral studies at the Trudeau Institute from 2005-2010 working on memory CD4 T cell generation and function. In 2010 Dr. McKinstry moved to the University of Massachusetts Medical School as an Instructor and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2015. Dr. McKinstry was recruited to the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida in 2015. His research group is focused on understanding how memory CD4 T cells are generated and how they can be integrated into vaccines against influenza. He is particularly interested in how newly described tissue-resident memory T cells contribute to protective responses against influenza.
Research Interest
Dr. McKinstry’s research interests are focused on uncovering how memory T cells are generated following viral infection, and learning how they contribute to immunity during recall challenges. One key issue that the McKinstry laboratory is addressing is how specializedized populations of memory with different functions and in different tissue sites synergize to clear acute viral pathogens like influenza.