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An audio introduction to our research...
(or, why never to walk into a lab while cameras are rolling)
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H. polygyrus...
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...in gyroscopic...
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...twists
The immune system is our chief defence against infection, but it is a double-edged sword. Immune responses can also be harmful or even fatal. The optimal response to infection is one that is perfectly balanced: strong enough to clear the pathogen, but restrained enough to keep collateral damage to a minimum.   

Our lab is working to understand the mechanisms that control immune balance.  We are interested in cytokines and cytokine conversations, and we are studying a number of cell-cell interactions that control cytokine production and direct the outcome of infection. 

We use viral, bacterial and parasitic infection models to analyse cytokine responses in vivo, during a physiological response. Our goal is to provide knowledge that will enable cytokine signalling to be manipulated in the clinic, to improve patient outcome during infection, inflammation, and other immune-related disease.
 
A summary of our research was published by UBC’s news team, here.  Since then, we have moved from UBC to the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
 
 CURRENT PROJECTS      (click each one for more details)
1. The distinctive metabolism of type 2 immunity: tissue-based regulation?
2. Double trouble: the immunology of co-infection
3. The art of immune balance, and the skill of IL-10
4. Long-term impacts: how infection and immunity leave lasting impressions in affected tissues
OUR TOOLBOX

PATHOGENS
  • Influenza A, for a strong but localised Th1 and CD8+ response, and one that can be tracked using MHC tetramer tools.
  • Heligmosomoides polygyrus, a parasitic roundworm, for a potent Th2 response focused on the gut and gut-draining lymphoid tissues.
  • Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan parasite that stimulates a systemic Th1 response, and then encysts in brain and muscle tissue. 
 
HOSTS
  • A series of transgenic models that use fluorescent proteins to reveal cytokine expression in vivo. 
 
TECHNIQUES
  • Infection models and disease pathology
  • Metabolic analyses, including single cell
  • Flow cytometry, used to identify cells, cytokines and active cytokine receptor signalling
  • Tissue culture and primary cell differentiation, including epithelial cell cultures
  • ChIP-seq, RNA-seq and molecular analyses
  • Immunofluoresence and spatial analyses