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The
vertebrate immune system uses many unique mechanisms to recognize
and eliminate foreign pathogens and disease. These mechanisms are
mediated predominately by receptors expressed on the surface of
specialized immune cells that survey their environment for the
presence of non-self or altered self through protein receptors on
their cell surface. Our interests focus on identifying the molecular
recognition mechanisms of these receptors, and furthermore
characterizing the signals to which they are responding. One area of
our research focuses on a particular cell type, gamma delta T cells,
which reside in tissue compartments that are initial sites of
infection such as the digestive and reproductive tracts, as well as
the epidermis. Our goal is to identify the molecular mechanisms
behind how these T cells recognize antigen through their T cell
receptor (TCR) and how these signals are transmitted to the interior
of the cell through the TCR/CD3 signaling complex. We are
exploring these questions through protein biochemistry, biophysical
measurements such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and x-ray
crystallography. We complement our molecular studies
with cell imaging using confocal microscopy and cell based
stimulation assays in order to put our findings at the molecular
level in the context of the cellular based immune response.
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