Award Details:
Award Type: Catalyst
Award #: C-092
Proposal Title: Role of Regulatory T Cells in Preventing Autoimmunity During Infection
PI(s): Peter Savage (UChicago) and Nancy Freitag (UIC)
Award Amount: $241,000.00
Application Cycle: Round 27 (Spring 2019)
Award Start Date: September 1, 2019
Award End Date: August 31, 2021
Abstract:
A major unanswered question in immunology lies in understanding how the immune system can mount robust protective responses against foreign pathogens, while limiting collateral damage to self tissues, a property termed “self vs. non-self discrimination”. Whereas classical paradigms suggest that the deletion of self-reactive T cells is a primary mechanism driving this process, mounting evidence suggests that other mechanisms are required. The objective of this proposal is to determine the extent to which regulatory T (Treg) cells, a critical mediator of immune suppression, confer self vs. non-self discrimination. By generating a unique model system in which a natural self-antigen is exclusively expressed by: (1) host mice; (2) the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes (Lm); or (3) both host and pathogen, we will test the hypothesis that Treg cells confer self vs. non-self discrimination by shielding key self-antigens from T cell attack while leaving pathogen-derived antigens unprotected.