# Peripheral immune surveillance and long-lived barrier immunity through T cell DC cross-talk

> **NIH NIH R56** · WEILL MEDICAL COLL OF CORNELL UNIV · 2021 · $648,534

## Abstract

Project summary
We face an unprecedented time in human history. There has never been a greater need to understand
immunity in our barrier tissues (e.g. skin, lung, and gut). Peripheral memory T cells maintain protective long-
term immunity to infections in tissue (including CoV2, influenza, herpes, and smallpox) and survey against
primary cancers and metastases. Tissue specific memory is needed for long-lived protective immunity,
including tissue immunization strategies, targeting infections and cancers of the tissue. This proposal tests how
our long-lived memory T cells that reside in the skin are formed, maintained, and governed through a single
regulatory axis and by cross-talk with local tissue Dendritic Cells. Our goal is foundational: to understand the
basic principles by which barrier immunity is generated and shaped. We apply our findings to important and
relevant in vivo models for infection and test the consequences for tissue inflammation, autoimmunity and
protective memory recall. Establishing a mechanistic groundwork and robust preclinical modeling is needed to
later test interventions. This work is also likely to offer insight into the pathophysiology of class of agents in
clinical use driving tissue-specific toxicities in the skin and other peripheral organs known as as immune
related adverse events (iRAEs).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10488936
- **Project number:** 1R56AR078686-01
- **Recipient organization:** WEILL MEDICAL COLL OF CORNELL UNIV
- **Principal Investigator:** Niroshana Anandasabapathy
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $648,534
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-21 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10488936

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10488936, Peripheral immune surveillance and long-lived barrier immunity through T cell DC cross-talk (1R56AR078686-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10488936. Licensed CC0.

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