Characterisation Of The Antigen Cross-presentation Pathway In Dendritic Cells
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$593,888.00
Summary
T cells and Dendritic Cells (DC) are important components of the immune system. DC detect bacterial and viral infections and activate T cells to fight those infections. Our goal is to understand how DC communicate with T cells. This knowledge will allow us to develop new vaccines and to interfere with the mechanisms that enable infectious agents to escape detection.
Systematically Exploring The Contribution Of Immunoproteasome To Immunodominance And T Cell Function
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$499,860.00
Summary
Vaccine will help us to fight both infectious diseases and malignancy. However, there are few successful vaccines for infectious agents and there is simply no vaccine to cure any tumor at the moment. So, it is essential for us to learn the basics related to vaccine development. Killer T cells eliminate tumour cells or virally infected host cells by recognising fragments (epitopes) derived from tumour- or virus-derived proteins displayed on a host molecule called MHC. Normally multiple epitopes a ....Vaccine will help us to fight both infectious diseases and malignancy. However, there are few successful vaccines for infectious agents and there is simply no vaccine to cure any tumor at the moment. So, it is essential for us to learn the basics related to vaccine development. Killer T cells eliminate tumour cells or virally infected host cells by recognising fragments (epitopes) derived from tumour- or virus-derived proteins displayed on a host molecule called MHC. Normally multiple epitopes are generated as part of the protein recycling program referred as proteine degradation which is mainly conducted by bundled enzyme complex, called proteasome. Two major forms of proteasomes are expressed by most cells. One called house-keeping proteasome and the other, which replaces the house-keeping one during viral infections is called immunoproteasome. The role that the immunoproteasome plays during anti-viral and anti-tumoral immune responses is not fully understood. In addition, the immunoproteasome is also expressed by a few cell types that do not suppose to need it if its function is entirely to generate better epitopes for MHC to display. In this project, we will sytematically explore the contribution of the immunoproteasome to overall anti-viral and anti-tumoral immune responses in three mouse model systems. The shared feature of these systems is that multiple killer T cell epitopes have been defined, which could potentially provide us with very sensitive assessments. The three systems are anti-influenza, anti-vaccinia virus and anti-tumor antigen (NY-ESO-1) mouse models.Read moreRead less