british society for immunology summer school 2017 16 19 july, … summer school f… · 17.15 -...
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British Society for Immunology Summer School 2017
16–19 July, Leicester University
British Society for Immunology Summer School 2017
16–19 July, Leicester University
The British Society for Immunology would like to welcome you to the 2017 Summer School. We
hope the event will continue in the tradition of providing a high quality Summer School aimed at
PhD students, postdocs and anyone else interested in understanding the basics of immunology.
We have a full programme of lectures, tutorials, career sessions and social activities for you,
provided by world leading immunologists. Please do take advantage of the opportunity to ask
questions and interact with our speakers. The programme provides plenty of time to interact with
experienced immunologists on an informal level at tutorial style sessions and at social events,
including the Summer School gala dinner at the National Space Centre.
As well as our busy programme of lectures and tutorials we have organised a careers afternoon to
take place on Tuesday 18 July. We will have talks from four professionals working in different fields
related to immunology, who will give us some insight into what their current roles involve and how
they got to where they are. These talks will be followed by a panel discussion and a careers tutorial
which should provide you with plenty of time to ask all your questions.
We would like to thank Prof Dave Cousins and the University of Leicester for hosting the event, as
well as BSI Education Secretary Dr Helen Collins for all her help with the organisation of the event.
Our thanks also go to the following sponsors who have made the Summer School possible. Please
take the time to visit their stands and interact with them throughout the course of the event.
Thank you for attending the BSI Summer School, we hope you find it beneficial and enjoy the
event.
Welcome from the local organiser
Welcome to Leicester for the BSI Summer School. Leicester is a lively multicultural city with
a rich history dating back to Roman times. More recently Leicester has become famous for
its Premiership winning football team and Richard III, the dead king found in a car park. The
University of Leicester is famous worldwide for the discovery of DNA fingerprinting and for
the space research program and we will be visiting the National Space Centre as part of the
Summer School.
Leicester also has a long tradition of immunology and infectious disease teaching and
research. We focus particularly on respiratory diseases (such as asthma and COPD), renal
inflammatory diseases, and bacterial pathogens. We also have a NIHR Biomedical
Research Centre focusing on respiratory disease and a vibrant TB research group.
For this year’s BSI Summer School, we have put together an exciting program of
international experts to cover many aspects of immunology research and we very much
hope you enjoy the conference and your visit to the city of Leicester.
With best wishes
Prof David Cousins
Add in his affiliation
BSI Summer School Programme
Monday 17th July
8.00 - 9.00 Breakfast (Hospitality Lounge)
9.00 - 9.50 L1 - JAK-STAT signalling in immunity: from basic
mechanisms to disease
Susan John
9.50 - 10.40 L2 - Understanding T cell signalling, its role in
autoimmunity and its manipulation for tumour therapy
Rose Zamoyska
10.40 - 11.00 Tea and coffee (Hospitality Lounge)
Sunday 16th July
16.00 - 17.00 Registration / Accommodation check in
(Luggage store will be available)
17.00 - 17.15 Introduction to Summer School
Dave Cousins
17.15 - 18.45 Plenary talk - The role of cytokines in the immune
response to infection: transcriptional profiling of blood
reveals the immune response in tuberculosis
Anne O'Garra
18.50 - 19.00 Bus to College Court
(Pick up from outside Stamford Court)
19.00 - 22.00 BBQ at College Court
22.00 - 22.10 Bus back to Stamford Court
(Pick up from College Court car park)
11.00 - 11.50 L3 - Joint events: inflammation and immune regulation
in human health and disease
Leonie Taams
11.50 - 12.40 L4 - Molecular control of neutrophil function in
inflammation
Irina Udalova
12.45 - 13.45 Lunch (Hospitality Lounge)
13.50 - 15.30 T1 - Tutorial - Round table event
All
15.30 - 16.00 Tea and coffee (Hospitality Lounge)
16.00 - 16.50 L5 - Protective and harmful immunity to respiratory viral
infection
Peter Openshaw
16.50 - 17.40 L6 - T cells and Tuberculosis: friends or foes?
Andrea Cooper
17.40 - 18.30 Informal networking
18.30 - 19.00 Bus to National Space Centre
(Pick up from outside Stamford Court)
19.00 - 19.30 Arrival (drinks and look around space tower)
19.30 - 20.00 Planetarium show – Astronaut
20.15 - 21.30 Dinner
21.30 - 22.15 Time to look around exhibition
22.15 - 22.45 Bus back to Stamford Court
(Pick up from National Space Centre car park.)
Tuesday 18th July
8.00 - 9.00 Breakfast (Hospitality Lounge)
9.00 - 9.50 L7 - Antigen-specific immunotherapy with T cell
epitopes
David Wraith
9.50 - 10.40 L8 - Immunotherapy for the organ specific autoimmune
disease type 1 diabetes
Mark Peakman
10.40 - 11.00 Tea and coffee (Hospitality Lounge)
11.00 - 11.50 L9 – Innate and adaptive type 2 responses in human
disease
Dave Cousins
11.50 - 12.40 L10 - Dissecting ILC function and fate in vivo
David Withers
12.45 - 14.00 Lunch (Hospitality Lounge)
14.00 - 14.15 Career talk 1 - Clinical scientific training
Thomas Wilding
14.15 - 14.30 Career talk 2 - Policy and public engagement
Shannon Lacombe
14.30 - 14.45 Career talk 3 - Journals and publishing
Yvonne Bordon
14.45 - 15.00 Career talk 4 – Miltenyi Biotec
Elly Rankin
15.00 - 15.45 Career panel discussion
All
15.45 - 16.15 Tea and coffee (Hospitality Lounge)
16.15 - 17.30 T3 - Careers tutorial (including industry sponsors)
All
17.30 - 19.15 Informal networking
19.15 - 19.30 Bus to Nawaaz (Indian restaurant)
(Pick up from outside Stamford Court)
19.30 - 22.00 Dinner
22.00 - 22.15 Bus back to Stamford Court
(Pick up from outside Nawaaz indian restaurant)
Wednesday 19th July
8.00 - 9.00 Breakfast (Hospitality Lounge)
9.00 - 9.30 Accommodation check-out
(Luggage store will be available)
9.30 - 10.30 L11 - Innate immunosenescence: causes and
consequences for health
Janet Lord
10.30 - 11.00 Tea and coffee (Hospitality Lounge)
11.00 - 11.50 L12 - What does the immunoglobulin repertoire tell us
about B cell development and ageing?
Deborah Dunn-
Walters
11.50 - 12.40 L13 - Ageing, immunosenescence and exhaustion
Donald Palmer
12.45 - 13.45 Lunch (Hospitality Lounge)
13.50 - 15.10 T4 - Tutorial
15.10 - 15.30 Closing remarks
Dave Cousins
15.30 - 17.00 Farewell (tea and coffee available at Hospitality
Lounge)
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Speakers
Prof Anne O’Garra Francis Crick Institute
Research Interests: The immune system is effective in eradicating pathogens via many
mechanisms, including soluble mediators called cytokines. Immune
cells can produce different cytokines to control infection, but can
cause host damage if uncontrolled.
We are researching the molecular mechanisms underlying the development and function of
discrete subsets of immune cells that produce different cytokines protective against
pathogens, and the induction and function of a regulatory cytokine, IL-10.
We use diverse tools to study the mechanisms of IL-10 gene regulation in macrophages,
dendritic cells and T cells, and the consequences of IL-10 action in mouse models of infectious
diseases, with strong emphasis on tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
TB is a major cause global cause of morbidity and mortality. Using a systems biology
approach, we identified a robust blood transcriptional interferon-inducible neutrophil-driven
signature in human TB, and longitudinal analysis revealed that this signature disappears
during successful treatment.
Based on these findings and continued studies in human disease and in cellular and in
vivo experimental models, we are continuing to identify immune mechanisms of protection or
pathogenesis important for disease control in TB and other bacterial infections and the role of
Type I interferons (IFNs) in exacerbation of bacterial infections.
Dr Susan John King’s College London
Research Interests:
Susan John’s lab studies TCR and cytokine-induced signalling
mechanisms that regulate T cell activation and differentiation in healthy T
cells and the dysregulation of these molecular mechanisms in
inflammatory diseases (Crohn’s), autoimmunity (GPA) and cancer (CTCL). We perform basic
research to identify and characterise cytokine and TCR-induced signalling proteins and their
regulators using molecular and cellular biological techniques. Proteins of interest that may
have relevance in disease are further investigated in human translational studies to
understand their importance in disease pathology or in animal models in collaboration with
other labs.
Prof Rose Zamoyska
University of Edinburgh
Research Interests:
We are interested in understanding how T lymphocytes communicate with their environment both during differentiation in the thymus and subsequently in the periphery to regulate survival, expansion and further differentiation into effector or memory cells, while maintaining tolerance. In particular we are focussed on the role of the Src-kinase family and their modifiers such as the phosphatase, PTPN22, in facilitating responsiveness to antigens while retaining tolerance to self-proteins.
Prof Leonie Taams
King’s College London
Research Interests:
The main focus of research in Leonie Taams’ lab is to identify key cellular processes and molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of inflammation in humans, with a specific interest in inflammatory arthritis. The Taams lab studies the interactions between monocytes and T cells (in particular, Th17 cells and Tregs) and how these cells contribute to the initiation, perpetuation and resolution of inflammation. The lab hopes to use the knowledge gained to identify novel pathways and/or approaches to target inflammation in humans.
Prof Irina Udalova
University of Oxford
Research Interests:
Research in her laboratory is focused on transcriptional regulators of myeloid cells. By combining the state-of-the art functional genomic approaches with classical molecular and cellular immunology the laboratory is unravelling the transcriptional circuitry that control myeloid cell phenotypes in inflammation. They aim to discover regulatory factors controlling common and microenvironment-specific states of myeloid cells and validate their expression and function in models of inflammation. Their work has led to discovery of IRF5 as a molecular switch for inflammatory macrophages that impacts on both acute and chronic inflammation via modulation of neutrophil infiltration and T-cell responses. They have also revealed that type III IFNs have anti-inflammatory properties and specifically target neutrophil migration and function. They now wish to understand the mechanisms of actions of these modulators.
Prof Peter Openshaw
Imperial College London
Research Interests:
His research is on the immunology of the lung, viral lung disease, vaccination and immunopathogenesis of viral disease. He was among the first 100 elected Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999), and served on Wellcome Trust's Clinical Interest Group (1997–2003), Infection and Immunity (2002–2004) and the Tropical and Clinical Panels (2006–2008) and the Immunology and Infectious Diseases panel (2008–2010). He has served on many other national and international grant bodies. He became a member of British Society for Immunology's Council in 2006 and a member of the Department of Health's Scientific Advisory Group on Pandemic Influenza in December 2007. In 2009, Peter was invited by the Department of Health to become a member of the Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies (SAGE), chaired by the Chief Government Scientist, which advised the UK Government on pandemic influenza. He became vice-Chair of NERVTAG in 2015. In May 2009, he convened a UK-wide consortium of research groups to study hospitalised patients with H1N1/09 infection, Mechanisms of Severe Accute Influenza Consortium (MOSAIC). This involved 45 co-investigators in eight cities, focusing on a comprehensive investigation of hospitalised patients with influenza. He was Vice President of the European Scientific Working group on Influenza (ESWI) for 5 years, a member of ISARIC and a co-applicant on the EU FP7 PREPARE grant. He has a satellite affiliation with the Frances Crick Institute, London and is an NIHR Senior Investigator.
Prof Andrea Cooper
University of Leicester
Research Interests:
The goal of my programme is to define the factors impacting the
expression of immunity in the lung. The underlying themes include:
• the role of early innate events in driving coordinated immune responses
• the role of cytokines and chemokines in initiation, expression and
regulation of immunity
• the role of lymphocyte priming, differentiation and migratory capacity in prolonged
expression of immunity
• the role of the inflamed environment in regulating the expression of immunity.
The infection model of choice is mycobacterial challenge through droplet particles to the
alveolar tissue in the lung. This model uses a low dose challenge, allowing for very early
immune-mediated events in the lung tissue to be dissected with regard to kinetics, location
and the contribution of specific cell types to immunity. There has been a focus on the role of
IL-12, IL-23 and IL-17 and the specific role of dendritic cells and lung resident innate
lymphocytes in initiation and coordination of the acquired T cell response.
We also have a project examining the role of neonatal exposure to bacterial products as a
factor which impacts these early responses to mycobacterial infection in the adult. These
studies impact on working models of what makes individuals more susceptible to infection in
the lung and also to our understanding of basic immune mechanisms.
Prof David Wraith
University of Birmingham
Research Interests:
David Wraith is an immunologist who has worked in the field of T
cell biology for over 35 years. He is best known for his ground-
breaking work on autoimmunity and immunotherapy. His research
team has revealed mechanisms whereby autoreactive T-cells escape deletion in the thymus
and thus appear in the repertoire of all individuals. He also demonstrated that autoreactive
T-cells can be silenced by suitable administration of fragments of their protein targets. This
highly focused immunotherapy involves a negative feedback mechanism and can be
adapted for treatment of any autoimmune or allergic disease. His research group has
defined the rules governing the design of therapeutic peptides and revealed the molecular
basis of the T cell desensitisation that results from their use. He is now developing this form
of antigen-specific immunotherapy through Apitope, a company that designs and tests novel
treatments for autoimmune conditions in the clinic. Apitope has successfully completed
phase 2 clinical trials of peptide immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis and is involved in
further trials of the approach in Graves’ disease and haemophilia.
Prof Mark Peakman
King’s College London
Research Interests:
Our work focuses on type 1 diabetes, a disease that is widely considered to be the result of a chronic autoimmune process that leads to the death of insulin-producing β-cells in the islets of Langerhans. Type 1 diabetes is an important clinical burden worldwide, exemplified by its cost to the UK economy of £1.9 billion/year. The UK has ~400,000 patients (>50% diagnosed as children) and the world’s 5th highest incidence, still predicted to rise annually by 2–3%. Beyond being a life-changing diagnosis, the disease carries a burden of chronic complications (renal failure, loss of sight, cardiovascular disease) and early mortality (average 11-year reduction in life-expectancy). Understanding immune pathways that lead to disease and its progression could foster new therapeutic approaches, leading to early prevention or intervention strategies that maximise preservation of β-cells.
At its heart, type 1 diabetes is a result of a poorly-regulated immune system, in which autoreactive CD4 and CD8 effector T cells and B cells are able to combine to form an inflammatory focus in the islets (insulitis) that directly leads to β-cell death. The research in our group tries to understand what might precipitate this process; the role of genetic predisposition; the molecular and cellular requirements for β-cell killing (especially in terms of epitope recognition) and how healthy immune regulation to β-cells operates. At a more translational level we are aiming to develop new therapeutic strategies and better ways to monitor disease through immunological biomarkers and surrogates.
Prof David Cousins
University of Leicester
Research Interests:
• Dysregulation of the immune system in asthma
• Role of T-helper cells in the pathogenesis of respiratory disease
• Involvement of innate lymphoid cells in asthma and allergic disease
• Differentiation of immune cells in Type 2 immunity
• Multicolour flow cytometry
His research plans are focused on particular cells of the immune system that produce
inflammatory proteins that cause inflammation in the lungs and a worsening of symptoms in
patients. For several years, his work has examined the role of T-cells in allergy and asthma.
More recently he has been investigating a new cell type, called innate lymphoid cell, that
scientists did not know existed until very recently. These new cells may be very important in
causing inflammation in the lungs, especially during asthma exacerbations in response to
viruses like the common cold virus. He will be continuing his work on these new cells with
the aim of better understanding their role in respiratory disease. A deeper understanding of
these cells will hopefully enable us to develop new and better medicines to treat respiratory
diseases.
Dr David Withers
University of Birmingham
Research Interests:
The Withers lab is focused on understanding factors regulating adaptive immune responses, particularly cellular interactions governing the generation and success of CD4 T cells. Recent work has concentrated on the role of innate lymphoid cells and their potential provision of key costimulatory molecules to CD4 T cells. Our studies of innate lymphoid cells have further branched out to include analysis of their migration within and out of tissues as well as their requirements for key transcription factors in maintaining function and cell fate. Given the strong similarities between innate lymphoid cells and T helper subsets, we are further interested in understanding the differing requirements of these immune cells.
Prof Janet Lord
University of Birmingham
Research Interests:
Professor Lord’s team has shown that neutrophil function declines with age, specifically that neutrophil phagocytosis of bacteria is reduced by almost half and also that neutrophil migration accuracy is reduced. The latter is important as inefficient migration leads to excess tissue damage as the cell migrates towards a site of infection and this may explain why older people are frailer after infection. The team are now testing interventions to improve neutrophil migration and reduce mortality in patients with pneumonia.
Prof Lord’s studies also aim to determine if stress accelerates this loss of neutrophil function and makes the elderly more susceptible to infection and physical frailty. The research so far has shown that after hip-fracture or bereavement, the loss of neutrophil function is dramatically increased and almost half of hip fracture patients succumbed to serious bacterial infections. Importantly this work has revealed that this may be mediated by an excess of the immune suppressive stress hormone cortisol and a lack of the immune enhancing counter stress hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). A raised cortisol:DHEAS ratio was also associated with poor physical function (frailty) up to 6 months after hip fracture. Professor Lord is now seeking funding to try and supplement hip fracture patients with DHEA to see if the number of infections in these patients can be reduced.
More recently the team associated with the MRC-ARUK Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research have been studying older adults who have been physically very active all of their lives to determine how much of physical and immune ageing is due to increased inactivity with old age. So far this research has revealed that sarcopenia did not occur in these adults, but other aspects of ageing such as a decline in lung function did. The team are now examining immune function in these adults.
Prof Deborah Dunn-Walters
University of Surrey
Research Interests:
Our team has ongoing research projects looking at how the
immune system changes with age, collaborating with
colleagues in mathematics and computational biology. We also
have some early stage projects on the involvement of B cells in
breast cancer and on the immune response to Ebola virus disease in West Africa.
Previous work in our lab has shown that levels of Ig gene hypermutation generally increase
with age even though the rates of hypermutation in the GC remain unchanged, implying re-
activation of antigen-experienced cells. The stringency of the selection process acting on
these Ig genes during affinity maturation of antibodies appeared to decrease with age in
mucosal secondary lymphoid tissue. We also found that B cell diversity decreases in some
old people, and lack of diversity correlates with the increased appearance of clonal
populations as determined by sequence analysis. Furthermore, the decrease in total B cell
diversity correlates with poor health and earlier mortality. Hence our current research is
continuing this work – investigating how a lack of diversity can affect specific immune
responses, cell-intrinsic differences between young and aged B cells and undertaking
studies of B cell repertoire composition to test theories of age-related changes in
homeostatic regulation. We are identifying “ageing-specific” and “development-specific”
types of antibodies in silico and cloning them for functional studies in vitro. In addition we are
using the same techniques to identify antibodies of importance in vaccination, in infection
and in tumours.
Our most recent research investigated the selection events that occur in early B cell
development, and also analysed the qualitative differences between kappa and lambda light
chain immunoglobulin genes.
Dr Donald Palmer
Royal Veterinary College
Research Interests:
Donald’s main area of research is focused on investigating the cellular and molecular interactions involved in T cell development and, in particular, understanding the processes that are involved in age-associated thymic involution and immunosenescence.
He has used antibody phage display technology to identify cell surface structures expressed on thymic epithelium that are involved in stromal cell-thymocyte interaction, which is still an ongoing project. Furthermore, in a collaborative project he has used this technology to identify cell surface structures on tumours. Cross-talk between the immune, endocrine and nervous systems involve common neuroendocrine circuits and Dr Palmer’s work has demonstrated the expression of several neuropeptides and their receptors in the thymus of different species and showed that these peptides can directly modulate thymocyte differentiation.
These studies led Dr Palmer to pursue an interest in understanding how ageing affects the immune system, in particular the mechanisms involved in age-related thymic atrophy. His group have been investigating the architectural changes in the ageing thymus, and made the novel finding of the presence of senescent cells in the thymus of older animals (in collaboration with Professor Thomas von Zglinicki, Institute of Ageing and Health, University of Newcastle). In addition to these observations, examination of thymocytes also revealed age-related alterations in phenotype and function. Dr Palmer has extended his interest on the effect of ageing on other components of the immune system and is examining Natural Killer cell function in the elderly (in collaboration with Prof Arne Akbar and Dr Sian Henson, UCL).
He also has an interest in comparative immunology and is currently examining the thymic architecture and function in different species.