T cell functional states in diseases and therapeutic targeting opportunities

Speaker: Professor Di Yu

Abstract: T lymphocytes, or T cells play a central role in mounting a variety of immune responses and represent the major cellular target in immunotherapies in human diseases. Their pluripotency is underlying by diverse differentiation potentials of naïve T cells to become specialised functional states in immune responses. I will present the current models of branching differentiation in CD4+ helper T cells and progressive differentiation in CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. With the examples of new immunotherapies in lupus and cancer, as well as promoting vaccine response, I will discuss how discoveries of T cell functional states and knowledge of molecular pathways in regulating their generation can provide new opportunities in developing immunomodulatory drugs.  

Bio: Professor Di Yu is the Chair in Paediatric Immunotherapy and the inaugural Director of Ian Frazer Centre of Children's Immunotherapy Research at the University of Queensland. As a Professor of Immunology, he also heads Systems and Translational T-cell Immunology Laboratory (STTIL) in Frazer Institute. By investigating T cell functional subsets in immune responses, he innovates new strategies to control immune pathways to treat autoimmune diseases, infection, and cancer and develops “systems immunology” approach to monitor human immune status.

Professor Yu has authored over 100 publications of basic and translational research in immunology, including Nature, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, Immunity and Science Immunology. In recognition of his ground-breaking research in T cell immunology and immunotherapy, he was elected as Fellow of Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) and has received major awards from Australian Academy of Science (AAS), Australia Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS), and the Australia and New Zealand Society for Immunology (ASI).