The mechanisms of establishing, maintaining immunological memory and immunodominance hierarchy

Funding Activity

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Funded Activity Summary

The hallmark of the adaptive immune response is the development of specific immunological memory following the first confrontation with a microorganism. Memory T cells are capable of responding rapidly upon subsequent exposure to the same microbes thus providing protective immunity. This proposal aims to investigate how cytotoxic T cells establish memory following their primary encounter with microorganisms. The proposal will dissect the relationship between memory T cell formation and the amount-length of antigen exposure; and the influence on memory induction from various immune modulators (cytokines) at the time of antigen encounter. Using a range of sophisticated detection methods, very early memory T cells will be identified in the primary response and tracked through their differentiation into long-term memory pool. Experiments will determine how T cells against particular determinants are selected from the primary immune response, retained in the memory pool and recalled in the subsequent challenges. The properties of antigen processing of various determinants will be correlated with the immunodominance hierarchy in the primary and memory response. Taken together the proposed project is central to understanding how memory T cells are created and what rules govern their stability. The project is highly relevant to vaccine design against tumours and pathogens

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2003

End Date: 01-01-2005

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $234,750.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Clinical chemistry (incl. diagnostics)

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Antigen processing/presentation | CD8+ T cell immunodominance | CD8+ T cell memory | Immune therapy | cancer vaccine | vaccine design | viral control