Project: MR1 – a molecular alarm system for intracellular bacterial infection
Villadangos Group
MR1 is a molecular alarm to alert the immune system during bacterial infection. It captures metabolite by-products from bacteria and presents them to a highly abundant T cell subset, called mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells. The MR1-MAIT cell system is a highly conserved piece of the immune repertoire to detect important bacterial pathogens, yet basic aspects are not understood, such as which cells express MR1 in vivo. This project will use a novel MR1-reporter mouse model to discover which cells are armed with MR1 during various disease settings, and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to understand how MR1 works in these cells.
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Villadangos Group
3 vacancies
The Villadangos group studies the first event that triggers adaptive immune responses: the presentation of pathogen or tumour antigens to T cells by dendritic cells, B cells and macrophages. We are characterising the development, regulation and impairment of antigen presenting cells by pathogens, inflammatory mediators and tumours. We are also dissecting the biochemical machinery involved in antigen capture, processing and presentation. We use this knowledge to understand how T cell-dependent immunity is initiated and maintained, and apply it to design better vaccines and immunotherapies against infectious agents and cancer.
Villadangos Group Current Projects
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MR1 – a molecular alarm system for intracellular bacterial infection
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Immunoregulatory functions of the MARCH family of ubiquitin ligases
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Understanding the mechanisms that impair anti-tumour Adoptive Cell Therapy
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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The role of glucose metabolism in the regulation of immunity
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Immuno-paralysis following severe infections or trauma
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
Research degrees at the Doherty Institute are administered by the University of Melbourne.