Cellular Immunology

Research Interests

The Cellular Immunology Unit studies mechanisms able to induce and maintain immune tolerance. We study diseases, or animal models of human pathologies, where the immune system has an inappropriate action, such as autoimmunity, transplantation or allergy. We aim to reprogramme the immune system, inducing the expansion of regulatory T cells capable of reinstating the tolerance state. We always strive to validate our experimental results in collaboration with clinical scientists.

Publications

Graça, L. (2005). New tools to identify regulatory T cells. European Journal of Immunology 35 :1678-1680

Graça, L., Chen, T.C., Le Moine, A., Cobbold, S.P., Howie, D., Waldmann, H. (2005). Dominant transplantation tolerance: activation thresholds for peripheral generation of regulatory T cells. Trends in Immunology 26 :130-135

Cobbold, S.P., Castejon, R., Adams, E., Zelenika, D., Graça, L., Humm. S., Waldmann, H. (2004). Induction of foxP3+ regulatory T cells in the periphery of T cell receptor transgenic mice tolerized to transplants. Journal of Immunology 172 :6003-6010

Graça, L., Le Moine, A., Lin, C-Y., Fairchild, P.J., Cobbold, S.P., Waldmann, H. (2004). Donor-specific transplantation tolerance: the paradoxial behavior of CD4+CD25+ T cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 101 :10122-10126

Graça, L., Le Moine, A., Cobbold, S.P., Waldmann, H. (2003). Dominant Transplantation Tolerance. Current Opinion in Immunology 15 :499-506

Graça, L., Cobbold, S.P., Waldmann, H. (2002). Identification of regulatory T cells in tolerated allografts. The Journal of Experimental Medicine 195 :1641-6

Graça, L., Thompson, S., Lin, C-Y., Adams, E., Cobbold, S.P., Waldmann, H. (2002). Both CD4+CD25+ and CD4+CD25- regulatory cells mediate dominant transplantation tolerance. The Journal of Immunology 168 :5558-65

Lin, C-Y.*, Graça, L.*, Cobbold, S.P., Waldmann, H. (2002). Dominant transplantation tolerance impairs CD8+ T cell function but not expansion. Nature Immunology. 3 :1208-13

Graça, L., Honey, K., Adams, E., Cobbold, S.P., Waldmann, H. (2000). Cutting Edge: Anti-CD154 Therapeutic Antibodies Induce Infectious Transplantation Tolerance. The Journal of Immunology 165 :4783-6