ANTIGEN RECOGNITION BY LYMPHOCYTES

淋巴细胞的活化和耐受一直是一个具有重要理论和实践意义的课题。这个计划中的项目由于对这一主题的共同兴趣而联系在一起。总体而言，他们的目标是找出环境如何控制对抗原的反应或缺乏反应，或淋巴细胞。这种控制对我们生产高效疫苗和了解自身免疫性疾病的能力都很重要。将在项目1中进行的实验将处理一种新的B细胞耐受模型，在该模型中，自身抗原使B细胞无反应，从而使其反应容易再生。在项目2中，研究人员将研究胸腺细胞与耐受或选择配体之间的界面地理。研究人员还将研究CD8+T细胞和抗原提呈细胞之间的界面。项目3的研究人员发现，促凋亡蛋白BAD对激活的T细胞的生存或死亡决定至关重要。因此，我们将研究Bad在不同类型T细胞中的结构和功能，以及Bad与其抗凋亡配体Bclxl结合的结构。这三个项目的协调不仅是为了它们在淋巴细胞激活方面的共同利益，而且是因为它们共同使用了两项技术，这两项技术将得到两个核心的支持，即流式细胞仪和数字显微镜。

Lymphocyte activation and tolerance continues to be an important topic of much theoretical and practical significance. The projects in this program are linked by a common interest in this subject. Overall, their goal is to find out how circumstances control the response, or lack of response, or a lymphocyte to antigen. This control is important both to our ability to generate efficient vaccines and to understand autoimmune disease. Experiments to be done in project 1 will deal with a new model of B cell tolerance in which self antigens make B cells non-responsive in such a way that their responsiveness can easily be regenerated. In project 2, the investigators will study the geography of the interface between thymocytes and tolerising or selecting ligand. The investigators will also study the interface between CD8+ T cells and antigen presenting cells. The investigators of project 3 have found that the pro-apoptotic protein BAD is crucial to the decision of activated T cells to live or die. The structure and function of BAD in different types of T cells will therefore be investigated together with the structure of BAD bound to its anti- apoptotic ligand, Bcl-xl. These three projects are coordinated not only in their common interest in lymphocyte activation but also by their common use of two technologies, which will be supported by the two Cores, in flow cytometry and digital microscopy.