The regulation of early thymocyte development by morphogen signalling

T细胞是由一种叫做胸腺的器官产生的白细胞。T细胞对免疫至关重要，因为它们既能对抗传染病，又能指导其他类型的白细胞对抗感染。因此，了解t细胞是如何产生的对于我们理解免疫是非常重要的。当发育中的T细胞分裂时，失控的T细胞白血病和淋巴瘤就会出现，所以了解是什么控制了它们的产生，也将有助于我们理解和设计白血病的治疗方法。该项目将研究名为“刺猬”蛋白的分子如何控制胸腺中T细胞的产生。刺猬蛋白是一种由细胞产生并分泌的分子，它告诉邻近的细胞经历一个特定的过程，比如分裂、死亡或转变成不同类型的细胞。它们通过控制目标细胞中产生哪些分子来实现这一点，而这是由该细胞中哪些基因是活跃的决定的。刺猬蛋白在我们的胚胎发育中是必不可少的，因为它们向发育中的器官传递信息，控制器官的形成和生长。我们已经证明，出生后的刺猬蛋白在我们的免疫系统中也很重要，因为它们允许免疫系统的不同细胞之间的通信。它们还决定了胸腺中产生了多少t细胞，它们可以使发育中的t细胞分裂或停止分裂。我们的目标是通过发现在不同的发育阶段，当Hedgehog蛋白向t细胞发出信号时，哪些分子被制造出来，哪些基因变得活跃，从而发现Hedgehog蛋白给胸腺中正在发育的t细胞提供了什么信息。

T cells are white blood cells that are made in an organ called the thymus. T cells are essential to immunity because they both fight infectious diseases and instruct other types of white blood cell to fight infection. Understanding how T-cells are produced is therefore very important to our understanding of immunity. When developing T-cells divide out-of-control T cell leukaemias and lymphomas arise, so understanding what controls their production will also help us to understand and design treatments for leukaemia. This project will study how molecules called 'Hedgehog' proteins control the production of T cells in the thymus. Hedgehog proteins are molecules that are made by cells and secreted to tell other neighbouring cells to undergo a particular process, such as to divide, die or change into a different type of cell. They do this by controlling which molecules are made in the target cell, and this is determined by which genes are active in that cell. Hedgehog proteins are essential in our embryonic development because they transmit messages to developing organs controlling how the organs form and grow. We have shown that after birth Hedgehog proteins are also important in our immune systems because they allow communication between different cells of the immune system. They also determine how many T-cells are produced in the thymus and they can make developing T-cells divide, or stop dividing. We aim to find out what messages Hedgehog proteins give to developing T-cells in the thymus by finding out which molecules are made and which genes become active when Hedgehog proteins signal to T-cells at different stages of their development.