Immune Signalling

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Immune Signalling - Research at Peter Mac

The Immune Signalling laboratory studies the means by which the shape of immune cells orchestrates their response to the environment, and have recently uncovered fascinating new ways in which cell shape dictates immune function and cancer.

Research Focus

Basic research into the cell biology of immune cell development, function and cancer. Elucidating the role of cell polarity in leukaemia. Elucidating the role of asymmetric cell division in lymphocyte development and leukemia. Developing new imaging-based technologies to explore the interplay between polarity and cell fate decisions.

Research Overview

The Immune Signalling laboratory studies the means by which the fate of immune cells (lymphocytes) is controlled by cell shape (also called polarity). Our laboratory has a particular interest in a group of proteins that regulate polarity in epithelial cells and are tumour suppressors in the vinegar fly (see the Cell Cycle Development and Cell Cycle and Cancer Genetics laboratories). We recently discovered that this polarity network operates in T cells, and are now investigating whether these proteins control T cell fate, and also act as tumour suppressors in lymphocytes. This year we also identified a novel means by which cell fate decisions in lymphocytes are controlled. This process, termed asymmetric cell division, utilises polarity to ensure that the two daughters of a dividing lymphocyte are programmed to adopt different cell fates. This observation is likely to have profound consequences for immune function and for cancer and is now a major focus of the Immune Signalling laboratory. The laboratory has an active collaboration with researchers in the Centre for MicroPhotonics at Swinburne University of Technology, to develop new imaging technologies such as multiphoton intravital microscopy, microfabrication for live imaging, and laser tweezers. These technologies are then applied to our studies of the mechanisms of polarity and T cells.