Controlling Destructive T cells in CNS Autoimmune Disease

Steve Anderton is Professor of Therapeutic Immunology at the University of Edinburgh. His lab is based at the Medical Research Council Centre for Inflammation Research, where he leads on the theme of Immune Modulation and Regulation of Inflammation. Steve received his PhD from the University of Newcastle and then moved to the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, with a Wellcome Trust fellowship. He held positions at Cambridge University and Bristol University before moving to Edinburgh in 2000. From 2000-2012, he held MRC Career Development and Senior Research Fellowships and an RCUK Fellowship in Translational Medicine. Steve’s main research focus is on the signals that control the activation of T cells that cause autoimmune and allergic disease. Recent work has focused particularly on the roles of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells in the natural resolution of CNS autoimmune disease, on how these cells interact with pathogenic effector T cells and on what might restrict the unwanted gain of pro-inflammatory function by the Treg themselves. Steve’s other long-term interest is in the use of antigenic peptides as therapeutics to induce immune tolerance in autoimmune and allergic diseases. Ongoing work is exploring the cellular, molecular and epigenetic processes underlying this highly effective form of therapeutic immune tolerance.