Award details

Maintenace of peripheral tolerance

Reference	BBS/E/R/00001628
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Christopher Whitelaw
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	The Roslin Institute
Department	The Roslin Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	26,700
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/01/2008
End date	31/12/2008
Duration	12 months

Abstract

Exploring the mechanisms involved in the maintenance of self tolerance and why this fails in autoimmunity is my central research area. During my PhD I explored the role of peripheral tolerogenic mechanisms during the breakdown of self tolerance. In particular, I investigated whether a decline in the function of regulatory T cells (T regs) was involved in the development of autoimmunity. The data I published in this area was some of the most convincing to date that neither a quantitative nor qualitative decline in T reg function precedes the onset of autoimmune disease highlighting that other mechanisms are likely to be involved in the breakdown of self tolerance. I also published work which indicated that loss of invariant chain function, which is protective in the widely used model of diabetes, the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse, is not simply due to altered peripheral presentation of antigen but is associated with an altered balance in T effector cells and T regs. I also explored the role of T regs in the TCR transgenic BDC2.5NOD mouse. I am now extremely keen to further develop these observations as well as establishing new studies which will investigate the role of peripheral mechanisms in the maintenance of tolerance as well as investigating the interaction of the innate and adaptive immune system in the development of autoimmunity. I have applied for a BBSRC Project Grant (with Professor Hume) to examine the role of macrophages in the maintenance of self tolerance (application submitted). I have also applied for a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship working with Professor Anderton examining the importance and mechanism of T cell adaptation. In particular, I am interested in examining the flexibility of T cell adaptation, the role of CD5 in adaptive tolerance and how do adapted cells interact with antigen presenting cells.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	Immunology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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