Grant: Project Grant

The immune system of an individual is devoted to fight infections. The white blood cells of the immune system patrol the organism to eliminate pathogens. T cells, a type of white blood cells, are the central player allowing to mount an efficient immune response. T cells specifically recognize the foreign agents via a cell surface receptor, the T cell receptor (TCR). This recognition allows for the expansion and differentiation of T cells that are specific to the infectious agent. The differentiation of T cells is crucial to allow them to acquire the ability to eliminate the infectious agent. After clearance of the infection, most of the differentiated T cells will die to reset the system. A few of these T cells will survive as long-lived memory T cells to confer rapid protection against re-infection with the same agent. However, in certain circumstances, such as infection that become chronic or cancer, T cell function is diminished and memory T cells are not generated. As a consequence, the infection or cancer persists. Transcription factors, a class of molecules controlling gene expression, plays crucial roles in T cell response by inducing the proper gene expression program required for differentiation. Our project aims to understanding the molecular events allowing for proper differentiation of T cells during an immune response. We are studying the interplay between two transcription factor families (NR4A and bZIP) in inducing the expression of genes important for T cell differentiation