Development of Cellular Tools and Techniques to Identify Low Affinity T Cells

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R21 · $230,250 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY Each naïve cell within the T cell repertoire expresses a unique T cell receptor (TCR) that allows it to recognize peptide antigens in the context of major histocompatibility (pMHC) molecules. TCR-pMHC interactions are the chief determinants of long-lived adaptive immunity against microbial infections and cancer. The use of pMHC tetramers to identify and study T cells expressing TCRs of high affinity for their cognate ligand has been transformational for our understanding of T cell-mediated immunity. However, problems with their production and a failure of these reagents to detect T cells expressing low affinity TCRs have led to significant limits on our knowledge of T cell responses. Here we propose to develop a technique that can be readily used to make a broad range of pMHC and detect T cells expressing TCRs of low affinity for their cognate pMHC.

Key facts

NIH application ID
9974912
Project number
1R21AI146966-01A1
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Principal Investigator
Michael S Kuhns
Activity code
R21
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2020
Award amount
$230,250
Award type
1
Project period
2020-09-09 → 2022-08-31