Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. From now until the launch of Oxford Events, new events cannot be published or edited on OxTalks while all existing records are migrated to the new platform. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period.
From 16th, Oxford Events will launch on a new website: events.ox.ac.uk, and event submissions will resume. You will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
A consequence of naive CD8+ T cell activation is specific changes in phenotype, proliferation and acquisition of lineage-specific function. The precise gene regulatory mechanisms that control these changes are largely unknown. Using a combination of genome wide sequencing approaches we have examined the wholesale changes in both 3D structure and biochemical modifications associated with virus-specific CD8+ T cell differentiation in response to infection. Our data suggests that lineage-specific fate determination is largely preconfigured, or poised, within mature naive virus-specific CD8+ T cells. More importantly our data suggest that effector differentiation is in fact actively restrained within the naive state by specific molecular mechanisms, with T cell activation resulting in release of this molecular handbrake that triggers transcriptional activation of a highly regulated differentiation program that underpins induction of an optimal effector killer T cell response. Understanding these mechanisms is key for understanding not only how optimal CD8+ T cell effector function is established but it has implications for our understanding of how immunological memory is established, and how we may modulate this process for therapeutic gain.
