Originally posted 2015/03/22
Congratulations to Rajiv, who was awarded a Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada 2015 PhD Studentship! This prestigious award will support his work to understand how T and B cells collaborate during the early stages of an autoimmune response to myelin protein to start and promote disease.
Both T and B cells are responsible for determining what the immune system is going to attack. Very early in the response, T and B cells interact with each other through direct contact during which they exchange signals and information that leads to the development of different kinds of immune response. The T and B cells themselves can develop into different kinds of cells that play different jobs in the immune response. This is a critical time in the initiation of autoimmune disease and Rajiv aims to understand some of the signals and other regulatory processes that control how the response to a myelin autoantigen develops and how these compare to a response to a “normal” non-self target. This information will be important not only for understanding how the autoimmune disease starts, but also in understanding how B and T cells promote ongoing chronic disease.
Congratulations Rajiv!