Human Immunity

Summary

The Human Immunity Laboratory studies the immune processes which determine the host’s response to infectious disease, cancer and innocuous agents. Our research focuses on T cells and their ligands where we explore receptor genetics, biology, engagement and molecular structure across a number of human disease systems. We use information from these basic studies to modify T cell interactions and T cell repertoires for use in rational vaccine design and therapeutic interventions.

Conditions researched

• Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)
• Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) (nose and throat cancer)
• Glandular fever
• Burkitt's lymphoma
• Hodgkin lymphoma
• Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)
  

Current research

• Determining the biological relevance of T cell receptor diversity in disease pathogenesis
  
• Determining fundamental rules of engagement between T cell receptors and their ligands
• Determining the immunological consequences of genetic diversity on pathogen defence
• Engineering affinity-enhanced T cell receptors and ligands for new cancer therapeutics
  

Staff

Team Head: Dr John Miles

Research Assistants: Michelle Neller

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following funding agencies:

• National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia

Collaborators

Professor Scott Burrows, QIMR, Australia

Professor Rajiv Khanna, QIMR, Australia

Professor Denis Moss, QIMR, Australia

Professor Jamie Rossjohn, Monash University, Australia

Professor James McCluskey, University of Melbourne, Australia

Professor Andrew Sewell, Cardiff University, United Kingdom

Professor David Price, Cardiff University, United Kingdom

Dr Linda Wooldridge, Cardiff University, United Kingdom

Dr David Cole, Cardiff University, United Kingdom

Dr Bent Jakobsen, Immunocore Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom

Professor Mark Peakman, Kings College London, United Kingdom

Dr Ania Skowera, Kings College London, United Kingdom

Professor Thomas Blankenstein, Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany

Dr Daniel Douek, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States

Associate Professor Chihiro Motozono, Kinki University, Osaka, Japan