Understanding and engineering signalling in the immune system

The T-cell immune response is initiated when the major histocompatibility
complex (MHC) protein on the surface of an antigen-presenting cells (APC)
interacts with the T-cell receptor (TCR) on a T-lymphocyte. To understand how
these extracellular interactions are transmitted into intracellular signals,
we have generated an “artificial T cell” in which 13 immune-specific
signalling genes were introduced into a non-immune, fibroblast-like cell. This
artificial T-cell will initiate a specific intracellular signal with presented
with a cell bearing a complementary MHC. In dissecting this process, we find
that several intriguing physical events take place in the membrane, including
spatial segregation of proteins and membrane bending, which appear to underlie
the T cell signalling response. By understanding these phenomena, we have been
able to engineer artificial receptors and ligand that can generate specific
signalling responses in T cells. These studies illustrate how genetic
engineering, microscopy, cell biology and the physical chemistry of
membranes can be applied to understanding the immune system.

About the Speaker:
Prof. Ronald Vale is Howard Hughes Medical Investigator at the University of
California, San Francisco. He was president of the American Society for Cell
Biology (ASCB) in 2012. Ron Vale is the recipient of numerous awards and
recognitions, most recent being the Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, which
he shared with Jim Spudich and Michael Sheetz. This award recognizes the path-
breaking discovery of the molecular motor Kinesin by Vale and his colleagues.

Ron Vale is also passionate about the development of Life Sciences in India.
He has travelled widely here on numerous visits, and has been a driving force
behind the “Young Investigators Meetings” and the Indiabioscience web portal,
both fertile meeting grounds for young researchers.