Tao Dong

Founding Director (Oxford), Professor of Immunology

Human T cell response against virus and Cancer

The main objective of my group’s research is to focus on the functional aspects of the antigen specific T cells and studying the factors affecting T cells in controlling virus infection and cancer development.

For important human infections, cancer development and the course of disease is influenced mainly by the T cell response - while a robust and appropriate T cell response is beneficial to the host, a weak or inappropriate response can be ineffective or even have a detrimental effect. Numerous factors influence the quality of the T cell response to viral infections, predominant among them being the microenvironment of the infection site, the type of cells infected and the variability of the virus. By understanding the key factors required for efficient viral control by the T cell response in a number of different viral infections and viral associated cancer, we aim to augment and control the immune response to as a way of improving the outcome of in several important human diseases. Current research program including:

To characterise human Tumor specific cytotoxic T cell responses beyond T cell receptor
To identify the factors determining functional avidity and cancer efficacy of tumor specific cytotoxic T cells in cancer micro-environment
To study the factors affecting the antigen processing and presentation in cancer cells
To define the impact of IFTIM3 genetic variation on Influenza, and other virus infection, immune responses and disease outcome

Recent publications

T cell assays differentiate clinical and subclinical SARS-CoV-2 infections from cross-reactive antiviral responses
Journal article

Ogbe A. et al, (2021), Nature Communications, 12
Characterization of humoral and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses in people living with HIV.
Journal article

Alrubayyi A. et al, (2021), Res Sq
Antibody evasion by the P.1 strain of SARS-CoV-2
Journal article

Dejnirattisai W. et al, (2021), Cell
Single-dose administration and the influence of the timing of the booster dose on immunogenicity and efficacy of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine: a pooled analysis of four randomised trials
Journal article

Voysey M. et al, (2021), The Lancet, 397, 881 - 891
Characterization of humoral and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses in people living with HIV.
Journal article

Alrubayyi A. et al, (2021), bioRxiv

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