Basic Immunology

Developing a fundamental understanding of T cell activation and tolerance.

Discoveries 

T-cells and Mechanobiology

Our lab discovered that T cells, the major coordinators of the immune response, respond to mechanical forces that they receive from interactions with other cells and that they themselves make. Mechanotransduction -- the conversion of mechanical forces to biochemical signals -- has barely been studied in immune cells. It is our long-term goal to understand the biophysical basis of mechanotransduction in modulating T cell responses, which can strategically improve T cell functions in autoimmunity, infections, and cancer.

Topics explored:

  • How do mechanical signals modulate activation of T cells?
  • What are the cytoskeletal pathways that facilitate mechanotransduction in T cells?
  • What is the impact of extracellular matrix structure on T cell activation?

Featured publications:

 

Mechanical Forces at the Molecular Scale

We showed that T cells make pushing and pulling forces after TCR triggering. We show that the actin-spectrin anchoring protein alpha-adducin is necessary to trigger CD28 costimulation. We demonstrated the oscillatory forces on the T cell receptor can accentuate activation in vitro.

Featured publications:

 

Mechanical Forces at the Cellular Scale

We showed that the ability of T cells to sever actin by the enzyme cofilin controls the immune synapse size and the strength of signal received by T cells. These results improve our understanding of the threshold of activation of T cells.

Featured publications:

Mechanical Forces at the Tissue Scale

We showed T cells sense mechanical forces coming from the surrounding extracellular matrix, in lymph nodes or in biomimetic scaffolds.

Featured publications: