Immunobiology of Cytokines
Immune responses, be they beneficial responses to infection or harmful autoimmune responses, require highly coordinated interactions between various immune cells. Cytokines like the Interleukins are the signalling proteins responsible for regulating communication between immune cells and orchestrating this response.
Our group is interested in studying how newly discovered cytokines work during normal immune responses to infection as well as how they are involved in autoimmune disease and whether they can activate the immune system to delete emerging tumours. This will inform us as to whether the new cytokines could be new therapeutic targets.
In particular we are interested in the interleukin-12 family of cytokines, which includes the recently identified IL27, IL23 and IL35. Our data show an important role for these proteins in autoimmune diseases like multiple schlerosis and lupus and we are continuing to try to understand how they work. In addition we are investigating whether they act to protect against emerging lymphomas, colon carcinomas and mammary carcinomas.
Staff
 Research AssistantCarlo Natividad |
PhD Student Norhanani Aniek |
