Recent Advances in T Cell Immunity

Dear Colleagues,

T cells are a key player in the adaptive immune system, and research in cellular immunology provides an understanding of T cell recognition, activation and dysregulation and their roles in infectious diseases, allergy and cancer. A hallmark of T cells is their incredible diversity, achieved by their T cell receptor (TCR). Further diversity is seen in their target molecule, the Major Histocompatibility (MHC) complex. This diversity is critical as it facilitates the recognition of an almost infinite range of antigens that T cells will have to face over their lifetimes.

Researchers in our field have done an amazing job over recent years, providing astonishing new insights into T cell immunity. These advances have been possible due to the ability to explore low affinity TCR interactions, rare and low frequency T cell subsets (naïve cells) and novel cell subsets and their associated markers as well as the unravelling of new TCR docking topologies, facilitated by the use of cutting-edge methodologies such as high throughput TCR sequencing and antigen discovery platforms (lipids, metabolites, modified and spliced peptides, etc.). The integration of approaches, from mouse models to structural biology, has greatly advanced our understanding of the role and function of T cells. Together, these findings are applicable to a broad spectrum of immunological responses (infection, allergy, cancer, etc.), and this collective work has had a tremendous impact on fundamental biology as well as biomedical discoveries.

Therefore, this Special Issue of IJMS will focus on the advances in the field of T cell immunity over the last 10 years, their impact on our overall understanding of T cell immunity and how this can inform the development of new therapeutics. This collection will include aspects of how T cells can recognise and fight viral and bacterial infections, the role T cells play in cancer and allergy (e.g. food, drugs, etc.), and the discovery of either new T cell subsets or novel roles for previously known T cell subsets. We are seeking novel research in the field of T cell immunity or review articles focused on the keywords below dedicated to developments from the last 10 years and how these have changed or enhanced our understanding of T cells. Our aim is for this Special Issue to shine light on multidisciplinary research that examines T cell immunity under a different lens.

Assoc. Prof. Stephanie Gras
Guest Editor

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