Pieces of a Puzzle: T-Cell Activation

www.iBiology.org
Researchers are harnessing the power of the human #immunesystem to create new treatments for challenging diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune disorders. In this video, meet one such researcher, Christopher Rudd, Ph.D., an immunologist whose seminal experiments in understanding how T cells respond to diseases in the immune system have led to the development of #cancer immunotherapies.
Rudd was the first to identify the role of tyrosine kinases and phosphorylation cascades in the activation of T cells via the T cell receptor. His discovery has led to the development of many different therapies, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells which are designed to treat and cure certain cancers.
Speaker Biography:
Christopher E. Rudd, Ph.D. is a professor of medicine at the Université de Montréal where his research focuses on deciphering the signal transduction pathways in T-cells, and how these pathways control immune functions. He received his BSc from McGill University (Canada) and his Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees from University College London (UK). Rudd began his studies on T-cell signaling while a faculty member at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI)/Harvard Medical School for 18 years in Boston and then later as a Professor at Cambridge University (UK).
His laboratory is credited with the discovery of the CD4 and CD8-p56lck complexes that initiate T-cell activation and a phosphorylation cascade involving key downstream targets. The CD4 and CD8-p56lck complexes initiate and broaden T-cell responses to most infectious agents. The discovery also provided a function for src kinases in normal receptor mediated signalling. Further, his work defined key aspects of CD28, ICOS and CTLA-4 co-receptor signalling in T-cells for co-stimulation and immunity. Overall, his research helps to uncover the signalling events that control the adaptive immune response and laid the foundation for therapeutics such as chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for the treatment of infection, autoimmunity, and cancer.
In recognition of his work, he has been elected Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (2002), the Academy of Medical Sciences (2002) and the Royal Society of Canada (2021). Visit Rudd’s lab website: www.christophe....
Producers: Brittany Anderton, Shannon Behrman, Lee Rossoff
Cinematographer & Sound: Productions Albédo Inc.
Editor: Lee Rossoff
Graphics: Chris George, Maggie Hubbard
Associate Producer: Shelley Elizabeth Carter
Executive Producers: Shannon Behrman, Sarah Goodwin, Elliot Kirschner
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under
creativecommons...
© 2007-2022 Science Communication Lab™. All rights reserved.
#res