Speakers include
Dr Andrew Stagg, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Centre for Immunology and Infectious Disease, Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, London
Dr Andrew Thorley, National Heart & Lung Institute, UK
Talks include
Oral Mucosa: Gatekeeper or housekeeper?
Dr. Lesley Ann Bergmeier, Centre for Clinical and Oral Diagnostic Sciences, Institute of Dentistry,Queen Mary's Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, UK
The oral mucosa can be regarded as a quiescent environment with little inflammatory activity to drive either innate or adaptive immune responses. However, this belies its capacity to respond to antigenic stimuli in either a response to the inflammation associated with common oral diseases (caries and periodontal diseases) or its ability to tolerate the vast amount of material to pass through the mouth as food or indeed in response to the extreme environmental changes associated with heat , cold, alcohol and tobacco intake. The oral mucosa is very far from being inactive.
Crosstalk between intestinal epithelial cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes
Dr Lucie Abeler-Dorner, Kings College, London
Throughout the small intestine, epithelial cells (IEC) are in close contact with intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL). IEL constitute one of the largest T cell compartments, but are commonly excluded from models of gut immune function. Making use of a novel system to culture IEL in vitro, we identify a hitherto unrecognized cytokine collaboration by which IFNγ, TNF and IL-1α produced by activated IEL provoke IEC to increase IL-6 production. Elevated IL-6 levels in the gut are associated with increased epithelial cell turnover, inflammation and carcinogenesis. This newly identified IEL:IEC cross-talk offers a novel source of factors regulating mucosal homeostasis, infection, and pathology.
About the chairs
Dr Kamal Ivory is a project scientist in the Mucosal Immunology group at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich. She began her research career looking at ways to prevent kidney allograft rejection at Guy’s Hospital in London. From there Kamal moved to the Royal Free Hospital (RFH) where she obtained her PhD. She continued to work there on ways of exploiting the potential of monoclonal antibodies for diagnosis and therapy, while also participating in ageing and immunodeficiency research. On moving to the Institute of Food Research in Norwich Kamal initially worked on healthy ageing, but is currently studying immune regulation in food allergy
About the Speakers
Lesley Ann Bergmeier joined the Centre for Clinical and Diagnostic Oral Sciences at Queen Mary University of London as Senior Lecturer in Applied Mucosal Immunology in November 2006. She has spent her career in the field of mucosal immunology focussing on vaccine design and the interface between innate and adaptive immunity at mucosal surfaces. Prior appointments were as researcher and then lecturer at Kings College London. Currently her interests include the chaperokine functions of heat shock proteins and their role in immune homeostasis in the oral cavity, with particular reference to disregulation at the oral mucosa.
Lesley Ann Lucie Abeler-Dörner joined King’s College London as a postdoctoral research fellow in 2008 after having received her PhD from the University of Heidelberg. Her research interests include mucosal immunology, immune surveillance and tissue-specific immune regulation. Having worked on the tolerization of dendritic cells by apoptotic cells before, her current research focuses on the crosstalk between intestinal epithelial cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes during the steady state, innate stress responses and food allergy.