Education and Qualifications:

• 1973-1978 Dr. of Stomatology, Minsk State Medical Institute, Belarus
• 1985-1989 DDS, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
• 1989-1997 Certificate, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and PhD, Immunology and Pathology, University of Iowa, Iowa City IA
• Fellow, American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
• 1998-current Diplomate, American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology

Research interests:

• Innate immune system function in the upper aerodigestive tract mucosa
• Squamous cell carcinoma of the upper aerodigestive tract: tumor microenvironment and cancer progression

Primary area:
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is the 6th most common cancer world-wide and represents approximately 85% of head and neck cancer. Current treatment (surgery and/or irradiation) is associated with significant morbidity, while the 5 year survival has remained below 60% for the past 40 years. The development of effective prevention and treatment modalities is hampered in part by the poor understanding of how the tumor microenvironment, which includes innate immune system cells and a mixed microbial flora, supports cancer progression.

The mucosal innate immune system is critical for innate and adaptive immune responses to infections and cancer, as well as for normal mucosal homeostasis in the face of ongoing mucosal colonization by microorganisms. Remarkably, microbial flora was recently shown to colonize not just the surface, but the entire primary tumor mass and the carcinoma metastases in the regional lymph nodes, while the innate immune system cells routinely represent a large proportion of infiltrating inflammatory cells. Certain aspects of inflammation result in the production of factors that may support cancer cell survival by inducing activation of pro-survival transcription factors. Our current studies primarily focus on the mechanisms by which normal and malignant squamous cell interact with the innate immune system cells, the impact of microbial products on these interactions, and the down-stream effects of these interactions on carcinoma cells.

Selected publications:
Zoya B. Kurago, Aroonwan Lam-ubol, Anton Stetsenko, Chris De La Mater, Yiyi Chen, Deborah V. Dawson. Lipopolysaccharide-squamous cell carcinoma-monocyte interactions induce cancer-supporting factors that lead to rapid STAT3 activation (In press, Head and Neck Pathology, September 2007).

Xiaoying Lu, Zoya Kurago and Kim A. Brogden. Effects of polymicrobial communities on host immunity and response. Invited Minireview. FEMS Microbiology Letters 2006, 265:141-150.

H-W Chan, ZB Kurago, A Stewart, MJ Wilson, MP Martin, BE Mace, M Carrington, A Russo, J Trowsdale & CT Lutz. DNA methylation maintains allele-specific KIR gene expression in human NK cells. Journal of Experimental Medicine 2003; 197: 245-255.

MB Moore, ZB Kurago, CF Fullenkamp, and CT Lutz. Squamous cell carcinoma cells differentially stimulate NK cell effector functions. Role of IL-18. Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy, 2003; 52:107-115.

GB Schneider, Z Kurago, R Zaharias., L Gardner, M Schaller, and M Hendrix. Elevated Focal Adhesion Kinase Expression Facilitates Oral Tumor Cell Invasion. Cancer 2002, 95(12):2508-2515.

CT Lutz and ZB Kurago. HLA class I expression on squamous cell carcinoma cells regulates natural killer cell activity. Cancer Research 1999, 59(22):5793-5799.

ZB Kurago, CT Lutz, KD Smith, and M Colonna. NK cell natural cytotoxicity and IFN-? production are not always coordinately regulated: engagement of DX9 KIR+ NK cells by HLA-B7 variants and target cells. Journal of Immunology 1998, 160:1573-1580.

KD Smith, ZB Kurago, and CT Lutz. Conformational Changes in MHC Class I Molecules: Antibody, T Cell Receptor, and NK Cell Recognition in an HLA-B7 Model System. Review. Immunological Research 1997, 16:243-259.

ZB Kurago, KD Smith, CT Lutz. Natural Killer Cell Recognition of MHC Class I: NK Cells are sensitive to peptide binding groove and surface alpha-helical mutations that Affect T cells. Journal of Immunology 1995, 154:2631.