Controlling Life And Death Of Dendritic Cell Subsets For Immunomodulation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$639,577.00
Summary
Dendritic cells are pivotal in orchestrating immune responses; for example, they can turn immune cells into assassins to kill virus infections. Their function is so diverse that different dendritic cells do different jobs. There are many genes that control life and death of cells but those that are important for each specialised dendritic cell have not been comprehensively studied. Drugs that affect the proteins made by such genes selectively may be a new way of controlling immune responses.
The Cell Death Mechanisms That Control Regulatory T Cell Homeostasis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$583,782.00
Summary
A central question in immunology is how to prevent destructive immune responses (e.g. autoimmune disease) and initiate productive immune responses (e.g. against cancer). A major breakthrough in this area was the discovery of special immune cells, called a Regulatory T Cells. We propose to discover the genes that determine whether these cells live and die. We will use this information to control appropriate numbers and function of Regulatory T Cells to modify the immune system.
Reversing Autoimmune Diabetes By Controlling Pathogenic Effector T-cells
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$408,662.00
Summary
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from misdirected immune responses that destroy insulin-producing pancreatic cells. The ultimate goal of therapeutic strategies is to remove or inactivate the cells that attack insulin-producing cells, while leaving other cells, for example, those required for protection from infectious diseases and tumours, unaffected. Here we propose to test a new way of turning off the inappropriate immune reaction with the goal of preventing type 1 diabetes.