Infection and Immunity

Infection and Immunity

The following groups perform research in this area:

Ivan Ahel

Ivan Ahel

DNA repair mechanisms and human disease

Our genome is constantly exposed to various types of DNA damage, both endogenous and exogenous. It has been estimated that the DNA in every cell of our body suffers thousands of DNA lesions per day, which, if left unattended, can lead to mutations and/or cell death. Our cells have evolved a variety of mechanisms to counteract...

Tanmay Bharat

From April 2022, Tanmay Bharat's group will be located at the MRC laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, maintaining a small team at the Dunn School.

Structural cell biology of bacterial biofilm formation

Rather than living as single, isolated cells in liquid cultures, most bacteria on this planet form macroscopic, surface-attached,...

Omer Dushek

Omer Dushek

Molecular immunology of signal integration by T cell surface receptors

T cells are important white blood cells that continually circulate in the body in search of the molecular signatures ('antigens') of infection and cancer. When encountering such antigens T cells become activated and subsequently initiate immune responses in order to clear these threats. Their...

Ervin Fodor

Ervin Fodor

Influenza virus replication at the molecular level

Influenza viruses are important human and animal pathogens. They cause widespread clinical and veterinary disease and have a considerable economic impact. Our laboratory focuses on the fundamental molecular mechanisms of influenza virus replication, aiming to understand the molecular determinants of host range and...

Matthew Freeman

Matthew Freeman

Cell biology of intercellular signalling

The main questions we study are what cellular mechanisms regulate signalling between animal cells, and how does that signalling control biological functions like physiology, development and pathology?

David Greaves

David Greaves

Regulation of inflammatory responses in vivo

Inflammation is the response of vascularised tissues to injury, metabolic disturbance and infection. Acute inflammation typically lasts only a few days while chronic inflammation can last for months or years, and is a defining feature of many important human diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and coronary heart disease...

Georgia Isom

Georgia Isom

Molecular mechanisms of bacterial membrane biogenesis

Using structural biology, biochemistry, and microbiology to study the molecular mechanisms by which Gram-negative bacteria build their outer membranes and protect themselves against antibiotics.

William James

William James

Macrophage modulation during viral infection and neuroinflammation

We are based in the James & Lillian Martin Centre.

The macrophage is a key cell in human health and disease, and we have developed very powerful methods for dissecting both physiological and pathological pathways in both infectious and non-infectious disease. We are currently focusing most on...

Susan Lea

Susan Lea

The Lea group has now relocated to the Center for Structural Biology at the NIH National Cancer Institute, USA, maintaining a small team at the Dunn School.

Host-pathogen interactions

An understanding of the way in which an invading pathogen interacts with its host at a molecular level is an essential aid to understanding the nature and extent of...

Anton van der Merwe

Anton van der Merwe

Recognition of abnormal cells by leukocyte receptors

My group studies the mechanisms by which leukocytes, such as T cells, use cell surface receptors to recognise infected or otherwise abnormal cells. The T cell receptor (TCR) plays a major role in this process by probing the surfaces of cells for the presence of 'foreign' peptides presented on MHC molecules in a...

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