IIT Seminar | Joshua Lange

Joshua Lange will be speaking at the UCL Institute of Immunity and Transplantation Seminar Series on Thursday 31 January. The seminar will be held in Tutorial Room 14 at the UCL Medical School Royal Free Campus.

The ability of a dendritic cell to present antigen to CD8+ cytotoxic T cells in an immunogenic manner can be modulated by a variety of environmental factors including CD4+ T cell help. Such signals are critical in determining the strength and magnitude of the initiated immune response and have therefore been desirable targets for immunotherapies. Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells act as cellular adjuvants by providing co-stimulation to antigen presenting cells upon recognition of the glycolipid a-galactosylceramide (aGalCer) in the context of CD1d. Thus, when aGalCer is co-administered with soluble peptide antigens, iNKT cells are able to license APCs, thereby enhancing the immunogenic presentation of peptide:MHC complexes to CD8+ T cells, leading to increased antigen-specific immunity.

Another innate-like T cell population, mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, has recently been recently described to play key roles in both sterile and non-sterile pathologies. Indeed, MAIT cells can rapidly exert effector functions upon TCR dependent recognition of riboflavin metabolites, presented in the context of MR1, or in a TCR independent manner via cytokines. Importantly, and in contrast to iNKT cells, they represent an abundant population of circulating human T cells (1-5%). Using novel chemistry, Joshua Lange and his team have generated synthetic MAIT cell agonists to determine whether, similarly to iNKT cells, MAIT cells can be harnessed as immunotherapeutic adjuvants.

All are welcome to attend. If you would like to meet the speaker after the seminar please contact the host.

Further information

• UCL Institute of Immunity and Transplantation (IIT)

Venue map