Research

Who does what?

As living creatures, we are continually interacting with our surroundings and our immune system is required to distinguish non-harmful entities from dangerous intruders and react accordingly.

Read more

Tools development: Illuminating antigen presenters

Through antigen presentation, naïve T cells get instructions to acquire a certain fate.  However, antigen presentation also allows activated T cells to act and instruct specific antigen presenters. Thus, antigen presentation is the beating heart of adaptive immunity, allowing ongoing cross-talk between multiple cell types to achieve immunity and tissue adaptation.

Read more

The mechanism for loss of tolerance: What goes wrong?

Typically, our immune system is successful in producing diverse responses simultaneously to maintain balance and provide protection. But occasionally, tragically, T cells adopt inflammatory programs instead of peaceful ones, resulting in conditions such as allergies and autoimmunity. What causes "loss of tolerance"? Are APCs, which normally initiate regulatory T cell response, still able to perform their job? Have other players emerged and taken the lead in initiating inflammatory T cell responses?

Read more