Donna Bunch, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Research

Email: donna_bunch@med.unc.edu
Phone: (919) 966-2561 x 283
Fax: (919) 966-4251
Office Location: 5006 Burnett-Womack

Specialty Areas: ANCA; autoimmunity; B cell development; myeloperoxidase; glomerulonephritis; autoantibodies

Chronology:  BA: University of North Carolina, 1980; PhD: Duke University, 1991; Research Associate: National Research Council, 1991-4; Training Award Fellow: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 1994-7; Postdoctoral Research Associate: University of North Carolina, 1997-2000; Assistant Professor: University of North Carolina, 2000-Present.

Donna Bunch’s research focuses on understanding the generation and regulation of anti- neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) in humans and mice. Dr. Bunch investigates the role of B cell development in autoimmune disease by examining B cell phenotypes in patients with ANCA vasculitis and mice transgenic for an anti-MPO light chain. 

In autoimmune disease, B cells have escaped the regulation that normally keeps them from making antibodies to things that are a part of the body (self antigens).  We want to study the B cells found in blood to try and understand how the B cells of a patient with his autoimmune disease are different from a person who does not have autoimmune disease. We believe that we can get clues about how ANCA vasculitis starts and what makes the disease either stay in remission or relapse by looking at the different kinds of B cells found in the patient’s blood over time.  Dr. Bunch has identified subpopulations of B cells that are different in patients with active disease compared to patients in remission and healthy controls.  

She also uses chimeric recombinant human and mouse MPO proteins to determine epitopes of MPO that may be important for the initiation and progression of disease in patients with ANCA vasculitis.

Selected Bibliography:

Erdbrugger U, Hellmark T, Bunch DO, Alcorta DA, Jennette JC, Falk RJ, Nachman PH. Mapping of myeloperoxidase epitopes recognized by MPO-ANCA using human-mouse MPO chimers. Kidney Int. 2006 May;69(10):1799-805. 

Couse JF, Hewitt SC, Bunch DO, Sar M, Walker VR, Davis BJ, Korach KS. Postnatal sex reversal of the ovaries in mice lacking estrogen receptors alpha and beta. Science. 1999 Dec 17;286(5448):2328-31. 

Cho C, Bunch DO, Faure JE, Goulding EH, Eddy EM, Primakoff P, Myles DG. Fertilization defects in sperm from mice lacking fertilin beta. Science. 1998 Sep 18;281(5384):1857-9. 

Bunch DO, Welch JE, Magyar PL, Eddy EM, O'Brien DA. Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase-S protein distribution during mouse spermatogenesis. Biol Reprod. 1998 Mar;58(3):834-41. 

Eddy EM, Washburn TF, Bunch DO, Goulding EH, Gladen BC, Lubahn DB, Korach KS. Targeted disruption of the estrogen receptor gene in male mice causes alteration of spermatogenesis and infertility.Endocrinology. 1996 Nov;137(11):4796-805. 

Bunch DO, Saling PM. Generation of a mouse sperm membrane fraction with zona receptor activity. Biol Reprod. 1991 Apr;44(4):672-80.

 

Click here for a list of publications on PubMed.

 

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