Professor Gillian Griffiths

University position

Professor

Professor Gillian Griffiths is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.

Research Themes

Immunity and host defences

Clinical and translational immunology

Molecular and structural immunology

Departments

Department of Medicine

Institutes

Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR)

Interests

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and Natural Killer (NK) cells use polarized secretion to destroy virally infected and tumorigenic target cells. Specialised secretory lysosomes, containing the pore forming protein perforin and a series of serine proteases, termed granzymes deliver the lethal hit in a specialized domain of the immunological synapse. Our research is focused on understanding the molecular basis of polarized secretion from CTL. We have used a series of rare genetic diseases including Hermansky-Pudlak and Haemophagocytic syndromes to identify the roles of proteins involved in secretion from CTL and NK cells.

Research Focus

Pathogens

None indicated

Equipment

Cell culture

Confocal microscopy

FACS

Fluorescence microscopy

Microscopy

Protein purification

Key publications

O.Holt E, Kanno G, Bossi S, Booth T, Daniele A, Santoro5 M, Arico’ C, Saegusa M, Fukuda and GM, Griffiths. Slp1 and Slp2-a localise to the plasma membrane of CTL and contribute to secretion from the immunological synapse. Traffic. 2008 9:446–57.

Griffiths GM. Gaucher disease: forging a new path to the lysosome. Cell 131: 647–649

Stinchcombe JC, Griffiths GM. Secretory Mechanisms in Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol. 2007 23: 495–517

McCarthy C, Shepherd D, Fleire S, Stronge VS, Koch M, Illarionov PA, Bossi G, Salio M, Denkberg G, Reddington F, Tarlton A, Reddy BG, Schmidt RR, Reiter Y, Griffiths GM, van der Merwe PA, Besra GS, Jones EY, Batista FD, Cerundolo V, The length of lipids bound to human CD1d molecules modulates the affinity of NKT cell TCR and the threshold of NKT cell activation. J Exp Med. 2007 May 14;204(5):1131–44.

Elisabetta Zuccato, Emma J, Blott, Oliver Holt , Sara Sigismund, Michael Shaw, Giovanna Bossi and Gillian M Griffiths. Sorting of Fas ligand to secretory lysosomes is regulated by monoubiquitylation and phosphorylation. Journal of Cell Science 2007 120 191–199

Jane C, Stinchcombe, Endre Majorovits, Giovanna Bossi, Stephen Fuller and Gillian M, Griffiths. Centrosome polarisation delivers granules to the immunological synapse for secretion. Nature. 2006 443: 462–465.

Collaborators

No collaborators listed

The Cambridge Immunology Community

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