Paul Klenerman

Sidney Truelove Professor of Gastroenterology, Chairman of the Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research, Group Head / PI and Consultant Physician

We have been working with Constantino Lopez-Macias group at the IMSS in Mexico city on a number of projects relating to infection and immunity.

The main project is on T cell immunity to Salmonella type and related organisms. Constantino’s group has led the field in developing porin based vaccines and we are currently studying the T cell responses to porins to understand more about their role in immunity against Typhoid and other infections. We are also interested in the role of  mucosal associated invariant T cells (MAIT cells) in responses to Salmonellae, how such cells may be activated and their role in gut defence.

Constantino has also been instrumental in setting up studies of B cell immunity in Oxford and contributed to the discovery of LLT-1 as a new marker of germinal centre B cells and activated plasmablasts with Chris Willberg (Llibre et al, JI, 2016).  Since LLT-1 binds the MAIT cell ligand CD161, this links the two aspects of research (B cells and T cells) together.

Future studies include the development of novel vaccines for salmonella type, analyses of chronic viral infections in Mexico and further basic science studies to define how long lived antibody responses may be generated. We have had a number of exchange visits for lab members and are keen to develop further collaborative projects in future.

Selected Publications

FERGUSSON JR, SMITH KE, FLEMING VM, RAJORIYA N, NEWELL EW, SIMMONS R, MARCHI E, BJÖRKANDER S. 2014. CD161 defines a transcriptional and functional phenotype across distinct human T cell lineages. Cell Rep, 9 (3), pp. 1075-1088.

SWADLING L, CAPONE S, ANTROBUS RD, BROWN A, RICHARDSON R, NEWELL EW, HALLIDAY J, KELLY C. 2014. A human vaccine strategy based on chimpanzee adenoviral and MVA vectors that primes, boosts, and sustains functional HCV-specific T cell memory. Sci Transl Med, 6 (261), pp. 261ra153.

XUE L, FERGUSSON J, SALIMI M, PANSE I, USSHER JE, HEGAZY AN, VINALL SL, JACKSON DG. 2015. Prostaglandin D2 and leukotriene E4 synergize to stimulate diverse TH2 functions and TH2 cell/neutrophil crosstalk. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 135 (5), pp. 1358-66.e1-11.