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Cambridge Immunology Network

 

Research

Supervisor: Professor Gillian Griffiths

I am in the final year of the 4 year CIMR PhD programme. I am interested in the mechanisms employed by cytotoxic T cells (CTL) to kill virally infected or tumour target cells.  An important part of this process is the movement of the microtubule organising centre of the CTL, the centrosome, to the point of T cell receptor signalling at the plasma membrane where the CTL interacted with its target cell. If the centrosome cannot polarise and dock at the plasma membrane then CTL are unable to kill their target cells.  This is because relocating the centrosome reorganises the microtubule network to permit precise, directed secretion of cytolytic granules at the CTL plasma membrane specifically towards the target cell.

During my PhD I have been investigating the role of centrosome proteins in CTL killing.  In particular, I have focused on centrosome proteins that could allow docking of the centrosome to the plasma membrane and also centrosome proteins that could regulate centrosome movement itself.

Publications

Key publications: 

Maike de la Roche, Alex T. Ritter, Karen L. Angus, Colin Dinsmore, Charles H. Earnshaw, Jeremy F. Reiter, and Gillian M. Griffiths. Hedgehog Signaling Controls T Cell Killing at the Immunological Synapse. Science 6 December 2013: 1247-1250.

Ritter AT, Angus KL, Griffiths GM. The role of the cytoskeleton at the immunological synapse. Immunol Rev. 2013;256(1):107-17.

Angus KL, Griffiths GM Cell polarisation and the immunological synapse Current opinion in cell biology 2013; 25: 85-91

Davison LJ, Wallace C, Cooper JD, Cope NF, Wilson NK, Smyth DJ, Howson JM, Saleh N, Al-Jeffery A, Angus KL, Stevens HE, Nutland S, Duley S, Coulson RM, Walker NM, Burren OS, Rice CM, Cambien F, Zeller T, Munzel T, Lackner K, Blankenberg S; Cardiogenics Consortium, Fraser P, Gottgens B, Todd JA,Attwood T, Belz S, Braund P, Cambien F, Cooper J, Crisp-Hihn A, Diemert P, Deloukas P, Foad N, Erdmann J, Goodall AH, Gracey J, Gray E, Gwilliams R,Heimerl S, Hengstenberg C, Jolley J, Krishnan U, Lloyd-Jones H, Lugauer I, Lundmark P, Maouche S, Moore JS, Muir D, Murray E, Nelson CP, Neudert J,Niblett D, O'Leary K, Ouwehand WH, Pollard H, Rankin A, Rice CM, Sager H, Samani NJ, Sambrook J, Schmitz G, Scholz M, Schroeder L, Schunkert H,Syvannen AC, Tennstedt S, Wallace C. Long-range DNA looping and gene expression analyses identify DEXI as an autoimmune disease candidate gene. Hum Mol Genet. 2012 Jan 15;21(2):322-33.

Downes K, Pekalski M, Angus KL, Hardy M, Nutland S, Smyth DJ, Walker NM, Wallace C, Todd JA. Reduced expression of IFIH1 is protective for type 1 diabetes. PLoS One. 2010 Sep 9;5(9).

 Karen  Angus
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Classifications: 
Departments and institutes: 
Person keywords: 
CTL
immune synapse