Rotation 1: CD8+ Tregs: the key to poor vaccine responses in the aged?

BBSRC strategic theme: Understanding the rules of life

CD8 Foxp3+ Tregs are a neglected suppressive cell type, with little known about the processes that they control. The host lab recently identified a novel link between CD8+ Tregs and B cells. We found that CD8+ Tregs express CXCR5, the key B cell zone homing receptor, and are found at high relative concentrations in the B cell zone. There is suggestive evidence that these CD8+ Tregs may suppress antibody production following vaccination, in the aged population in particular, as CD8+ Tregs accumulate with age. In this project we seek to study CD8+ Tregs in the control of vaccine responses with age. Initially in a rotation project we will focus on fully characterising CD8+ Tregs at a cellular level, followed by to full PhD project on using newly developed technology to perform a detailed analysis of B cell-dependency and colocalization, capacity to suppressive the vaccine response in vitro and in vivo, and to understand their origin and antigenic-dependency.