WEHI Wednesday Seminar hosted by Professor Daniel Gray
 

Professor Stephen Nutt

Laboratory Head – Immunology division, WEHI

Programming diversity in the immune system

 

Davis Auditorium

Join via SLIDO enter code #WEHIWednesday

Including Q&A session
 

All cells of the blood derive ultimately from a rare stem cell through a complex differentiation process that is predominantly driven by changes in gene expression. The immune system embodies this complexity where ten major lineages and hundreds of cell differentiation states are produced, each requiring precise regulatory control. Cracking the code that controls gene expression is a formidable challenge, with any given mammalian cell containing >100,000 accessible chromatin regions and the mouse immune regulome collectively comprising of at least 400,000 distinct elements. Our lab focuses on understanding this regulatory process, both during a healthy state and in settings of diseases of immune health, such as autoimmunity and cancer.

One intriguing example of transcriptional diversity is the adaptation of mature immune cells to their host tissue environment. These tissue-resident immune cells are critical for many aspects of protective immunity and can even play a homeostatic role on top of their canonical immune defence functions, yet how this tissue adaptation occurs is poorly understood.

In this seminar, I will discuss both specific examples of immune cell transcriptional diversity, particularly as it relates to tissue immunity, as well as more global approaches to decipher the regulatory networks controlling immune cell differentiation.

All welcome!