Molecular characterization of T cells across disease states in the central nervous system

The local cytokine milieu shapes the nature and function of immune cells and by extension the overall course of tissue-specific immune responses. In the context of cancer and autoimmunity, two opposing immune responses, the local immune environment can lead to dysfunctional T cell states. Understanding the mechanisms that distinguish these two states is key to identifying unique pathways that could be induced in autoimmunity and relieved without causing autoimmunity in cancer. We sought to characterize unique and shared T cell states in the context of multiple sclerosis (MS) and glioblastoma (GBM) using a combination of immunophenotyping and functional approaches, including ultra low-input transcriptional profiling. First we use a series of unbiased approaches to identify functional differences between auto-reactive T cells derived from MS or healthy donors.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Goods, Brittany A.(Brittany Anne Thomas)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• J. Christopher Love and Darrell Irvine.

• Biological Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122830

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122830