Lab Research Focus
Our laboratory is studying the mechanisms that control T cell development during an immune response. Naive T cells that are exported from the thymus are limited in their functional responses to antigen, but rapidly acquire functional capability following antigen recognition. The dominant factors that modulate T cell development during this critical period are the set of cell-associated costimulator molecules that are expressed by specialized cells that present antigen to the T cell (antigen-presenting cells), and the local cytokine environment. The integration of these various signals by the naive T cell results in distinct programs of differentiation, of which Th1 and Th2 cells are examples. We are using transgenic mouse models and molecular biological approaches to define the signals that control the fate of the T cell and to understand how alternative T cell developmental pathways lead to distinct immune responses.
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