Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The immune system has many mechanisms to recognize and defend an organism against any pathogens we encounter. In particular, the adaptive immunity is essential for long-lasting protection from invading pathogens as well as for prevention of future reoccurrences. A set of important proteins mediates the function of the adaptive immune system. These proteins facilitate the recognition of specific pathogen to generate a specialized response to eliminate the threat. One such protein is the enzyme human terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (hTdT). hTDT participates in the fine tuning of the receptors that recognize pathogens. These modifications introduce the diversity that allows specific recognition of encountered pathogens. In non-human models of autoimmune disease changes in their TdT changed their ability to develop autoimmune disease (and to respond to pathogens). At the population level, humans have numerous variations in their hTdT genes and thus some individuals produce different forms of the hTdT. We hypothesize that some of these genetic variations in hTdT contribute to the susceptibility of individuals to develop immune-related disorders. My research will focus on the analysis of some of these variations in hTdT to determine how their function is changed and the resulting impact that the changes found have on the activity of the adaptive immune system.