Thesis Advisor:
Dr. Todd Sulchek (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Committee:
Dr. Julia Babensee (Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University)
Dr. Julie Champion (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Dr. Andrés García (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Dr. David White (Centers for Disease Control)

Macrophages and the complement system are key components of the immune system that are essential to first recognizing invading pathogens as well as processing them for presentation to adaptive immune components. While the previous convention for classifying macrophage phenotype groups them as either pro- or anti-inflammatory, we now know that there is a wide spectrum of phenotypes that require outside stimuli for specific priming. The Fc receptor on macrophages binds to the Fc region of bound antibodies to antigens which then triggers the macrophage to phagocytose the opsonized pathogen. While this internalization process has been studied previously using a variety of methods, no one has yet attempted to decouple the physical and biochemical signals involved. Through the use of opsonized polystyrene particles, we shall show the effects of Fc valency as well as microparticle size on the priming of macrophage phenotype. We also propose to track these particles upon injection into the peripheral tissues to understand the role of Fc-primed macrophages on the adaptive immune response, specifically in the application of Myobacterium tuberculosis.