Understanding the causes and consequences of immune variability
In person only
Immune responses between individuals are highly variable. Some of this variability can be attributed to differences in age, sex, genetics and environment. However environmental effects on immune responses can be more challenging to study due to their ephemeral nature. By studying diverse immune responses of 1,000 healthy donors we recently identified significant effects of cigarette smoking on inflammatory responses to bacterial stimulation, as well as induced T cell responses. Interestingly the effects on inflammatory responses were lost soon after smoking cessataion, while the effects on T cells were maintained for many years through specific epigenetic modifications. We are now extending this integrated immune profiling approach to other diverse immune phenotypes as well as a longitudinal assessment of the same donors, and extension to other ages, populations and patient cohorts. We believe that this wil improve our understanding of the factors that shape differential immunity and help develop new strategies for the preventation and management of disease.
Date: 11 March 2024, 12:00
Venue: Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Headington OX3 7FY
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Dr Darragh Duffy (Institut Pasteur, Paris)
Organising department: Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS)
Organiser: Doris Chan (Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology)
Organiser contact email address: doris.chan@kennedy.ox.ac.uk
Host: Prof Mark Coles (Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology )
Part of: Kennedy Institute Seminars
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Doris Chan