Grant: CIHR New Investigator

An estimated two billion people worldwide are infected with soil-transmitted helminth parasitic worms. Field and experimental studies have shown that immunity in infected individuals is associated with expression of T helper type 2 (TH2) cytokines, the same family of messenger proteins that are over-expressed in asthma, allergies and some forms of inflammatory bowel disease. Although there is strong evidence that there is resistance to re-infection, it is unclear how this 'immunological memory' develops nor how it works. The goals of this proposal are to understand how the immune system remembers helminth parasites and to employ this knowledge to design successful anti-helminth vaccines. At the same time, this information will be extremely useful in the development of new therapies that treat diseases caused by dysregulated TH2 cells. Thus, the results of these studies will provide insights into the nature and function of memory TH2 cells and will be broadly applicable towards optimizing anti-parasite immunity as well as limiting inflammatory diseases caused by TH2 cells.