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WIMM PI
Curriculum Vitae
Personal Data
Name
Nationality
Email
Vincenzo Cerundolo
UK
[email protected]
Present Position
2010-present
Director, MRC Human Immunology Unit (WIMM)
2011-present
Head of Department of Investigative Medicine, Radcliffe Department of
Medicine (University of Oxford)
2000-present
Professor of Immunology (University of Oxford)
1996-present
Consultant (Hon), Medical Oncology Department, John Radcliffe NHS Trust
Previous Positions
1984 - 1985 House Physician, Department of Oncology, University of Padua, Italy.
1984 - 1988
Research Fellowship, Dept. of Experimental Oncology, University of Padua, Italy
1988 - 1991
EMBO Long-term Fellowship, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine;
Supervisor: Dr A. Townsend.
1991 - 1995
MRC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine.
1995 - 2000
MRC Senior Clinical Fellow, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine.
2004 - 2010
Associate Director, MRC Human Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of
Molecular Medicine.
1
Research Achievements
My research projects have been focused on the inter-relationship between T lymphocytes,
MHC class I and CD1 molecules, tumour and viral antigens. My main achievements have
been:
1) The biochemistry of endogenous antigen presentation by MHC class I molecules.
Identification of the first human antigen processing mutant and mapping of the MHC class II
region containing the TAP genes controlling the antigen processing defect (Cerundolo et al.,
Nature, 1990). These findings were then extended by identifying several families with
defects in the TAP complex and describing a novel syndrome in six TAP deficient patients
characterised by necrotizing granulomatous skin lesions with small vessel vasculitis (MoinsTeisserenc et al., Lancet, 1999). The realisation that the MHC class I molecules in the
processing mutant cells lacked peptide gave me the opportunity of measuring peptide
binding affinity to MHC class I molecules for the first time (Cerundolo et al., Eur J Immunol,
1991). My laboratory has shown that while the proteasome is important for the generation of
a large number of T cell epitopes (Cerundolo et al., Eur J Immunol, 1995), proteasome
dependent processing of defined melanoma antigenic proteins can lead to the destruction of
tumour T cell epitopes (Valmori et al., J Exp Med, 1999) and is directly involved in crosspresentation (i.e. presentation of exogenous proteins by MHC class I proteins) (Palmowski
et al., J Immunol, 2006).
2) The biochemistry of lipid presentation by CD1 molecules. In addition to the recognition of
peptides in the context of MHC class I and class II molecules by CD8+ and CD4+ T cells, it
has recently become clear that T lymphocytes can also recognise lipids presented in the
context of CD1 molecules. My laboratory has carried out a series of combined functional,
kinetic and structural studies, which have clarified for the first time the ligand-binding
mechanisms of lipids to CD1 molecules by: i) identifying the presence of a network of
interlinked hydrophobic channels (Gadola et al., Nature Immunol, 2002), ii) demonstrating a
general mechanism by which lipid-specific lymphocytes are capable of recognizing both the
group head and the length of lipid antigens, ensuring greater specificity of antigen
recognition (McCarthy et al., J Exp Med, 2007), iii) demonstrating that CD1d molecules
undergo a conformational change to facilitate the binding of lipid tails into the CD1d
hydrophobic channels ( Koch et al., Nature Immunol, 2005).
3) Harnessing iNKT cells to optimize cancer vaccines. My group demonstrated for the first
time that the highest frequency of tumour specific CTL can be found in tumour infiltrated
lymph nodes (Romero et al., J Exp Med, 1998). We have then extended these studies to
vitiligo patients and demonstrated using MHC class I tetramers that vitiligo patients’ PBL
have a high frequency of skin-homing melanocyte specific T cells (Ogg et al., J Exp Med,
1998). These results were of importance, as they illustrated the interphase between tumour
immunity and autoimmunity, since several tumour antigenic proteins are co-expressed by
normal and tumour cells. We also demonstrated that many melanoma patients are failing to
prime and activate their tumour specific CTL at earlier stages of their disease, and that
vaccination strategies capable of priming in vivo melanoma specific CTL may be clinically
helpful, as they will be able to recruit rapidly a large number of tumour specific CTL (Dunbar
et al., J Immunol, 2000). In order to identify strategies to enhance tumour specific immunity,
we looked at the interplay between innate and adaptive immune responses and
demonstrated that harnessing of iNKT cells could be used to enhance antigen specific T and
B cell responses. Several important concepts emerged from these studies, including the
demonstration that: 1) co-injection of iNKT cell agonists together with antigenic proteins may
enhance antigen specific CD4 and CD8 T cell responses (Hermans et al., J Immunol, 2007;
Hermans et al., J Immunol, 2003; Silk et al., J Clin Invest, 2004); 2) TLR signalling events
enhance the production of NKT cell agonists (Salio et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2007); 3)
definition of the mechanisms by which iNKT cells are activated in draining lymph nodes and
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modulate B cell responses (Barral et al., EMBO Journal, 2012; Barral et al., Nature Immunol,
2010); 4) identification of a novel immunomodulatory role of iNKT cells by demonstrating the
ability of iNKT cells to abolish the suppressive activity of myeloid derived suppressor cells
(MDSC) (De Santo et al., J Clin Invest, 2008; De Santo et al., Nature Immunol, 2010).
What are the Future Aims of Your Current Group?
Future work will continue to be focussed on the understanding of the mechanisms which
control the cell-cell interplay required for optimal expansion and activation of tumour-specific
T cell populations and characterization of the mechanisms used by tumours to hamper
tumour-specific immune response. Particular attention will be focussed on the analysis of the
developmental stages of DC for efficient activation of naïve and memory CD8+ T cells, as
this analysis will provide valuable information on how to harness DC’s adjuvant properties to
prime and boost T cell responses against tumours. Our goal is to develop a vaccine capable
of inducing high numbers of functional tumour specific T cell responses targeting multiple
epitopes, to minimize the chance of subsequent tumor escape through development of
antigen-loss variants. Vaccination strategies will be optimised in pre-clinical studies and
further validated in phase I clinical trials. Finally, frequency and phenotype of glycolipid
specific T cells in cancer patients will be studied using novel protocols developed in my
laboratory to refold CD1 molecules and generate CD1 tetramers.. Animal models will be
used to assess optimal priming conditions to generate CD1 restricted responses upon
injection of defined glycolipids. The interplay between CD1d restricted NKT cells and antigen
specific T lymphocytes will be studied using protocols currently available in my laboratory.
How do These Aims Contribute to the Understanding and/or Management of Human
Disease
There is a tremendous momentum in tumour immunology and for the first time the filed is on
a solid conceptual and technical footing. Understanding of the mechanisms which control the
activation of innate and adaptive tumour specific immune responses is of importance for the
design of the next generation of cancer vaccines.
Lay Summary of Research
T cell responses to natural infection are orders of magnitude greater than those observed in
cancer patients in response to current vaccination protocols. It is most likely, therefore, that
optimizing tumour vaccination protocols will require a deeper understanding of the signals
that the immune system coordinates in order to respond to pathogenic infection. Compounds
that mimic these signals and that can enhance the interplay between innate and adaptive
immune response may therefore be exploited as adjuvants in current tumour vaccination
strategies. The overall aim of this research programme is to build up a detailed picture of the
mechanisms controlling the cellular immune response to tumour specific proteins and to
develop vaccination strategies to enhance tumour specific T cell responses by bridging the
adaptive and innate immune response.
3
All Publications Over the Past 5 Years
1.
Chen J, Dawoodji A, Tarlton A, Gnjatic S, Tajar A, Karydis I, Browning J, Pratap S, Verfaille
C, Venhaus RR, Pan L, Altman DG, Cebon JS, Old LL, Nathan P, Ottensmeier C,
Middleton M, Cerundolo V. NY-ESO-1 specific antibody and cellular responses in
melanoma patients primed with NY-ESO-1 protein in ISCOMATRIX and boosted with
recombinant NY-ESO-1 Fowlpox virus. Int J Cancer. 2014 (In Press)
2.
Dawoodji A, Chen J, Shepherd D, Dalin F, Tarlton A, Alimohammadi M, Penna-Martinez
M, Meyer G, Mitchell AL, Gan EH, Bratland E, Bensing S, Husebye E, Pearce SH,
Badenhoop K, Kämpe O, Cerundolo V. High frequency of cytolytic 21-Hydroxylase
specific CD8+ T cells in autoimmune Addison's disease patients. J Immunol. 2014 (In
Press)
3.
Salio M, Silk JD, Jones EY, Cerundolo V. Biology of CD1 and MR1 restricted T cells.
Annu Rev Immunol. 2014 Mar 21; 32: 323-66.
4.
Shenderov K, Riteau N, Yip R, Mayer-Barber KD, Oland S, Hieny S, Fitzgerald P, Oberst
A, Dillon CP, Green DR, Cerundolo V, Sher A. Cutting edge: Endoplasmic reticulum
stress licenses macrophages to produce mature IL-1β in response to TLR4 stimulation
through a caspase-8- and TRIF-dependent pathway. J Immunol. 2014 Mar 1; 192(5):
2029-33.
5.
Pan X, Huang LC, Dong T, Peng Y, Cerundolo V, McGowan S, Ogg G. Combinatorial
HLA-peptide bead libraries for high throughput identification of CD8+ T cell specificity. J
Immunol Methods. 2014 Jan 31; 403(1-2): 72-8.
6.
Salio M, Ghadbane H, Dushek O, Shepherd D, Cypen J, Gileadi U, Aichinger MC,
Napolitani G, Qi X, van der Merwe PA, Wojno J, Veerapen N, Cox LR, Besra G, Yuan W,
Cresswell P, Cerundolo V. Saposins modulate human iNKT cells self-reactivity and
facilitate lipid exchange with CD1d molecules during antigen presentation. Proc Natl
Acad Sci USA. 2013 Dec 3;110(49):E4753-61.
7.
Scher JU, Sczesnak A, Longman RS, Segata N, Ubeda C, Bielski C, Rostron T,
Cerundolo V, Pamer EG, Abramson SB, Huttenhower C, Littman DR. Expansion of
intestinal Prevotella copri correlates with enhanced susceptibility to arthritis. Elife. 2013
Nov 5; 2(0)
8.
Hipp MM, Shepherd D, Gileadi U, Aichinger MC, Kessler BM, Edelmann M, Essalmani R,
Seidah NG, Reis e Sousa C, Cerundolo V. Processing of human TLR7 by furin-like
proprotein convertases is required for its accumulation and activity in endosomes.
Immunity. 2013 Oct 17;39(4):711-21.
9.
Crawford G, Enders A, Gileadi U, Stankovic S, Zhang Q, Lambe T, Crockford TL,
Lockstone HE, Freeman A, Arkwright PD, Smart JM, Ma CS, Tangye SG, Goodnow CC,
Cerundolo V, Godfrey DI, Su HC, Randall KL, Cornall RJ. DOCK8 is critical for the
survival and function of NKT cells. Blood. 2013 Sep 19;122(12):2052-61.
10. Duman M, Chtcheglova LA, Zhu R, Bozna BL, Polzella P, Cerundolo V, Hinterdorfer P.
Nanomapping of CD1d-glycolipid complexes on THP1 cells by using simultaneous
topography and recognition imaging. J Mol Recognit. 2013 Sep;26 (9):408-14.
11. Mussai F, De Santo C, Abu-Dayyeh I, Booth S, Quek L, McEwen-Smith RM, Qureshi A,
Dazzi F, Vyas P, Cerundolo V.
Acute myeloid leukaemia creates an arginasedependent immunosuppressive microenvironment. Blood. 2013 Aug 1;122(5):749-58.
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12. Shenderov K, Barber DL, Mayer-Barber KD, Gurcha SS, Jankovic D, Feng CG, Oland S,
Hieny S, Caspar P, Yamasaki S, Lin X, Ting JP, Trinchieri G, Besra GS, Cerundolo V,
Sher A. Cord Factor and Peptidoglycan Recapitulate the Th17-Promoting Adjuvant
Activity of Mycobacteria through Mincle/CARD9 Signaling and the Inflammasome. J
Immunol. 2013 Jun 1;190(11):5722-30.
13. Jervis PJ, Polzella P, Wojno J, Jukes JP, Ghadbane H, Garcia Diaz YR, Besra GS,
Cerundolo V, Cox LR. Design, Synthesis, and Functional Activity of Labeled CD1d
Glycolipid Agonists. Bioconjug Chem. 2013 Apr 17;24(4):586-94
14. Stock A, Napolitani G, Cerundolo V. Intestinal DC in migrational imprinting of immune cells.
Immunol Cell Biol. 2013 Mar;91(3):240-9.
15.
David LC, Morgan AJ, Chen JL, Snead CM, Bloor-Young D, Shenderov E, StantonHumphreys MN, Conway SJ, Churchill GC, Parrington J, Cerundolo V, Galione A. NAADP
activates two-pore channels on T cell cytolytic granules to stimulate exocytosis and killing.
Curr Biol. 2012 Dec 18; 22 (24): 2331-7 [Epub 2012 Nov 21]
16. Porubsky S, Speak AO, Salio M, Jennemann R, Bonrouhi M, Zafarulla R, Singh Y, Dyson J,
Luckow B, Lehuen A, Malle E, Müthing J, Platt FM, Cerundolo V, Gröne HJ. Globosides but
not isoglobosides can impact the development of invariant NKT cells and their interaction
with dendritic cells. J Immunol. 2012 Sep 15;189(6):3007-17. [Epub 2012 Aug 8].
17. Mussai F, De Santo C, Cerundolo V. Interaction between invariant NKT cells and myeloid
derived suppressor cells in cancer patients: evidence and therapeutic opportunities. J
Immunother. 2012 Jul;35(6):449-59.
18. Speak AO, Platt N, Salio M, Te Vruchte D, Smith DA, Shepherd D, Veerapen N, Besra GS,
Yanjanin NM, Simmons L, Imrie J, Wraith JE, Lachmann RH, Hartung R, Runz H, Mengel E,
Beck M, Hendriksz CJ, Porter FD, Cerundolo V, Platt FM. Invariant natural killer T cells are
not affected by lysosomal storage in patients with Niemann-Pick disease type C. Eur J
Immunol. 2012 Jul;42(7):1886-92. [Epub 2012 Jun 14]
19. Barral P, Sánchez-Niño MD, van Rooijen N, Cerundolo V, Batista FD. The location of
splenic NKT cells favours their rapid activation by blood-borne antigen. The EMBO
Journal. 2012 Apr 13; 31(10):2378-90.
20. Huang S, Cheng TY, Young DC, Layre E, Madigan CA, Shires J, Cerundolo V, Altman JD,
Moody DB. Discovery of deoxyceramides and diaglycerols as CD1b scaffold lipids among
diverse groove-blocking lipids of the human CD1 system. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2011 Nov
15.
21. Hutchinson S, Sims S, O'Hara G, Silk J, Gileadi U, Cerundolo V, Klenerman P. A dominant
role for the immunoproteasome in CD8+ T cell responses to murine cytomegalovirus. PLoS
One 2011 Feb 3;6(2) e14646
22. Silk JD, Lakhal S, Laynes R, Vallius L, Karydis I, Marcea C, Boyd CA, Cerundolo V. IDO
induces expression of a novel tryptophan transporter in mouse and human tumor cells
J Immunol 2011 Aug 15;187(4),1617-162
23. Silk KM, Silk JD, Ichiryu N, Davies TJ, Nolan KF, Leishman AJ, Carpenter L, Watt SM,
Cerundolo V, Fairchild PJ. Cross-presentation of tumour antigens by human induced
pluripotent stem cell-derived CD141(+)XCR1(+) dendritic cells. Gene Ther 2011 Nov 10;
5
24. Stock A, Booth S, Cerundolo V. Prostaglandin E2 suppresses the differentiation of retinoic
acid-producing dendritic cells in mice and humans. J Exp Med 2011 Apr 11;208(4), 761-773
25. De Santo C, Arscott R, Booth S, Karydis I, Jones M, Asher R, Salio M, Middleton M,
Cerundolo V Invariant NKT cells modulate the suppressive activity of Serum Amyloid A
differentiated IL-10 secreting neutrophils. Nature Immunology. 2010 Nov;11(11):1039-46.
26. Zeissig S, Dougan SK, Barral DC, Junker Y, Chen Z, Kaser A, Ho M, Mandel H, McIntyre A,
Kennedy SM, Painter GF, Veerapen N, Besra GS, Cerundolo V, Yue S, Beladi S, Behar
SM, Chen X, Gumperz JE, Breckpot K, Raper A, Baer A, Exley MA, Hegele RA, Cuchel M,
Rader DJ, Davidson NO, Blumberg RS. Primary deficiency of microsomal triglyceride
transfer protein in human abetalipoproteinemia is associated with loss of CD1 function. J Clin
Invest. 2010 Aug 2;120(8):2889-99
27. Nika K, Soldani C, Salek M, Paster W, Gray A, Etzensperger R, Fugger L, Polzella P,
Cerundolo V, Dushek O, Höfer T, Viola A, Acuto O. Constitutively active Lck kinase in T
cells drives antigen receptor signal transduction. Immunity. 2010 Jun 25;32(6):766-77.
28. Poulin LF, Salio M, Griessinger E, Anjos-Afonso F, Craciun L, Chen JL, Keller AM, Joffre O,
Zelenay S, Nye E, Le Moine A, Faure F, Donckier V, Sancho D, Cerundolo V, Bonnet D,
Reis e Sousa C. Characterization of human DNGR-1+ BDCA3+ leukocytes as putative
equivalents of mouse CD8alpha+ dendritic cells. J Exp Med. 2010 Jun 7;207(6):1261-71
29. Barral P, Polzella P, Bruckbauer A, van Rooijen N, Besra GS, Cerundolo V, Batista FD.
CD169+ macrophages present lipid antigens to mediate early activation of invariant NKT cells
in lymph nodes. Nature Immunology 2010 Apr;11(4):303-12.
30. Cerundolo V and M. Kronennberg. The Role of Invariant NKT Cells at the interface of innate
and adaptive immunity. Seminars in Immunology 2010 Apr;22(2):59-60.
31. Cerundolo V, Barral P and Batista FD. Protocols to harness invariant NKT cells to optimize
vaccination strategies. Current Opinion in Immunology 2010 Jun;22(3):417-24.
32. Chen J-L, Morgan AJ, Stuart-Jones G, Shepherd D, Bossi B, Wooldridge L, Hutchinson S,
Sewell A.K, Griffiths G, van der Merwe A, Jones EY, Galione A, Cerundolo V. Ca2+ release
from the endoplasmic reticulum of NY-ESO-1 specific T cells is modulated by the affinity of T
cell receptor and by the use of the CD8 co-receptor. J. Immunol 2010 Feb 15;184(4):1829-39.
33.
Salio M, Silk J and Cerundolo V. Processing and presentation of CD1 lipid antigens.
Current Opinion in Immunology. 2010 Feb;22(1):81-8.
34. Aleksic M, Dushek O, Zhang H, Chen J-L, Shenderov E, Cerundolo V, Coombs D, van der
Merwe A. Dependence of T cell antigen recognition on TCR/pMHC confinement time.
Immunity. 2010 Feb 26;32(2):163-74.
35. Gnjatic S, Cao Y, Reichelt U, Yekebas EF, Nölker C, Marx AH, Erbersdobler A, Nishikawa H,
Hildebrandt Y, Bartels K, Horn C, Stahl T, Gout I, Filonenko V, Ling KL, Cerundolo V,
Luetkens T, Ritter G, Friedrichs K, Leuwer R, Hegewisch-Becker S, Izbicki JR, Bokemeyer C,
Old LJ, Atanackovic D. NY-CO-58/KIF2C is overexpressed in a variety of solid tumors and
induces frequent T cell responses in patients with colorectal cancer. Int J Cancer. 2010 Jul
15;127(2):381-93.
36. Salio M, and Cerundolo V. Linking inflammation to natural killer T cell activation. PLoS
Biol. 2009 Oct;7(10):e1000226. Epub 2009 Oct 27.
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37. Ishizuka J, Grebe K, Shenderov E, Peters B, Chen Q, Peng Y, Wang L, Dong T, Pasquetto
V, Oseroff C, Sidney J, Hickman H, Cerundolo V, Sette A, Bennink JR, McMichael A,
Yewdell JW. Quantitating T cell cross-reactivity for unrelated peptide antigens. J Immunol.
2009 Oct 1;183(7):4337-45. Epub 2009 Sep 4.
38. Lawson VJ, Maurice D, Silk JD, Cerundolo V, Weston K. Aberrant selection and function of
invariant NKT cells in the absence of AP-1 transcription factor Fra-2. J Immunol. 2009 Aug
15;183(4):2575-84. Epub 2009 Jul 20.
39. Mallevaey T, Scott-Browne JP, Matsuda JL, Young MH, Pellicci DG, Patel O, Thakur M, KjerNielsen L, Richardson SK, Cerundolo V, Howell AR, McCluskey J, Godfrey DI, Rossjohn J,
Marrack P, Gapin L. T cell receptor CDR2 beta and CDR3 beta loops collaborate functionally
to shape the iNKT cell repertoire. Immunity. 2009 Jul 17;31(1):60-71.
40. Veerapen N, Brigl M, Garg S, Cerundolo V, Cox LR, Brenner MB, Besra GS. Synthesis and
biological activity of alpha-galactosyl ceramide KRN7000 and galactosyl (alpha1-->2)
galactosyl ceramide. Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2009 May 27.
41. Palmowski MJ, Parker M, Choudhuri K, Chiu C, Callan MF, van der Merwe PA, Cerundolo
V, Gould KG. A single-chain H-2Db molecule presenting an influenza virus nucleoprotein
epitope shows enhanced ability at stimulating CD8+ T cell responses in vivo. J Immunol
2009;182(8):4565-4571.
42. Reddy BG, Silk JD, Salio M, Balamurugan R, Shepherd D, Ritter G, Cerundolo V, Schmidt
RR. Nonglycosidic agonists of invariant NKT cells for use as vaccine adjuvants.
ChemMedChem 2009;4(2):171-175.
43. Stewart-Jones G, Wadle A, Hombach A, Shenderov E, Held G, Fischer E, Kleber S, StennerLiewen F, Bauer S, McMichael A, Knuth A, Abken H, Hombach AA, Cerundolo V, Jones EY,
Renner C. Rational development of high affinity T-cell receptor-like antibodies. Proc Natl
Acad Sci USA 2009;106(14):5784-8.
44. Cerundolo V, Silk JD, Masri SH, Salio M. Harnessing invariant NKT cells in vaccination
strategies. Nature Reviews Immunol, 2009 Jan;9(1):28-38.
45. Stock A, Cerundolo V. Analysis of frequency and phenotype of antigen-specific T cells.
Methods Mol Bio. 2009;514:1-14.
46. De Santo C, Salio M, Masri H, Lee LYH, Dong T, Speak A, Porubsky S, Booth S, Veerapen
N, Besra GS, Gröne H-J, Platt FM, Zambon M, Cerundolo V. Invariant NKT cells reduce the
immunosuppressive activity of influenza A virus induced myeloid derived suppressor cells in
mice and humans. J Clin Invest. 2008 Dec;118(12):4036-48.
47. Porubsky S, Luckow B, Bonorouhi M, Cerundolo V, Platt F, Gröne HJ. Glycosphingolipids
Gb3 and iGb3: In vivo roles in hemolytic-uremic syndrome and iNKT cell function. Pathologe.
2008 Nov: 29 (Suppl 2) 297-302.
48. Silk JD, Salio M, Brown J, Jones EY, Cerundolo V. Structural and functional aspects of lipid
binding by CD1 molecules. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol. 2008 Nov 10;24:369-395.
49.
Barral P, Eckl-Drona J, Harwood NE, De Santo C, Salio M, Illarionov P, Besra GS,
Cerundolo V, Batista FD. B cell receptor-mediated uptake of CD1d-restricted antigen
augments antibody responses by recruiting invariant NKT cell help in vivo. Proc Natl Acad
Sci USA. 2008 Jun 17;105(24):8345-50.
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50. Speak AO, Cerundolo V, Platt FM. CD1d presentation of glycolipids. Immunol Cell Biol.
2008 Oct:86(7):588-97.
Markers of Esteem
-
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Kay Kendal Leukaemia Fund;
-
Member of the Investigator Award Committee of the Cancer Research Institute (USA);
-
Associate Editor of the Cancer Immunity journal;
-
Principal Organiser of the Keystone Symposium on Myeloid Cells: Regulation &
Inflammation, 19-24th February 2013;
-
Co-organiser of the 7th International Symposium on CD1 and NKT Cells, Tours,
France, 13 - 17th September, 2013;
Patent Applications
2012
International Patent Application No PCT/EP2012/074140; iNKT cell modulators and methods of
using the same.
Collaborative projects with industry
2011
Co-Founder of a University spin-off company, BLiNK Therapeutics.
Current Grant Support
1.
2.
3.
Wellcome Trust Programme Grant: (Principal Investigator)
Title: Novel invariant NKT cell agonists as adjuvants for antigen specific T and B cell responses
Period: 2009 – 2014; Amount awarded: £857,627
Cancer Research UK Programme Grant: (Principal Investigator)
Title: Analysis of tumour-specific responses in cancer patients
Period: 1 Oct 09 – 30 Sep 14; Amount awarded: £1,226,110
European Union Seventh Framework Programme – Cooperation HEALTH
Title: Advanced Immunization Technologies (ADITEC)
Period: 2011 – 2015; Amount Awarded: £380,000
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