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Professor Lucy Walker
Professor of Immune Regulation
About
Research in the Walker lab focusses on autoimmune disease and immune regulation.
Research summary
Autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis arise when the immune system attacks the tissues of our own body. Our group is studying the cellular and molecular processes that allow such diseases to develop so that we can design new strategies to treat these conditions.
We have a particular interest in type 1 diabetes in which the immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Using a range of in vitro and in vivo models, we are learning more about the immune cell types that are responsible for causing disease as well as those that inhibit the disease process. This encompasses study of IL-21-producing T cells as well as regulatory T cells that inhibit immune response via the CTLA-4 pathway.