Completed Infection & Immunity Cancer

Generation of intrathymic microenvironments to establish t-cell tolerance

Funder MRC (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation University of Birmingham
Funding £2.0M
Period Sept 2010 — Sept 2015

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

The thymus—a small organ in the chest that produces T-cells—shrinks and slows with age, leaving older people more vulnerable to infections and less able to recover from bone marrow transplants. This matters because T-cells are the immune system’s frontline soldiers against viruses and bacteria. When the thymus stops working well, the body cannot replenish its T-cell supply. The result can be immunodeficiency (too few T-cells) or autoimmunity (T-cells attacking the body’s own tissues). Unlike most organs, the thymus deteriorates rapidly with age, and no current treatment restores its function. The researchers aim to understand how the thymus’s specialised lining—the thymic epithelium—guides T-cell production. This is fundamental science: they are asking how a specific tissue builds the right environment for immune cells to mature. If successful, the work could lead to ways to rejuvenate thymus function. That would directly improve outcomes for patients receiving bone marrow transplants for cancer, where rebuilding a working immune system is critical. It might also eventually help older adults maintain robust immunity. But the immediate goal is to map the biological machinery—a necessary step before any therapy can be designed.

View original technical description
White blood cells called T-cells are an essential component of the immune system, a body-wide series of cells and organs that is essential for life. T-cells are directly required to fight against bacterial and viral infections, as well as to help other immune system cells to make antibodies. The thymus is an immune organ in the chest that is the exclusive site for the production of T-cells. The importance of T-cells and the thymus for the continued health of the individual can be seen in examples where thymus function is abnormal, which can result in immunodeficiency or autoimmunity, where T-cells are either absent or reactive towards to the bodies own tissues. Unlike many other organs, thymus function is not constant throughout life: it diminishes rapidly as we get older, meaning that fewer T-cell are produced as we age. We aim to understand how T-cells are produced in the thymus by investigating how a specialised component of this organ, the thymic epithelium, develops and functions. By understanding how the thymus epithelium guides the production of T-cells, we hope to be able to apply this knowledge to the rejuvenation of thymus function, which will improve treatments where it is necessary to restore T-cell production, such as following bone marrow transplantation in the treatment of cancer.

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Researchers

Eric Jenkinson (Co-Investigator)Graham Anderson (Principal Investigator)Peter Lane (Co-Investigator)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

Understanding the regulation of thymus function to control self-tolerant T-cell production
Cortical Thymic Epithelium: Defining Developmental Pathways and Specialization for Positive Selection
Targeting New Mechanisms In The Control Of Thymus Function To Restore Balanced T-cell Production
Rebuilding the human thymus to create a tolerising system for allogeneic tissue and organ transplantation
Methods for Producing T lymphocytes in vitro from Stem Cells

Original classification

Research Grant

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