Research summary
Our immune systems have a tough job: they must be strong enough to control infections, but not so powerful or indiscriminate that they cause collateral damage and lead to autoimmune disease. This is a fine balance to strike. By better understanding this balancing act, Dr. Tania Watts, Canada Research Chair in Anti-Viral Immunity, hopes to learn more about vaccines.
Watts and her research team are studying how T-cells, a type of white blood cell, fight viral infections. They want to learn more about the mechanisms that allow these cells to persist as "memory" cells that can prevent reinfection. They are identifying the key signals that induce immune memory of viruses and studying how these signals can become dysregulated during chronic viral infection or cancer. Ultimately, their research will inform future work on vaccines and other immunotherapeutic strategies. It may also identify biomarkers to evaluate vaccine efficacy, predict disease or anticipate treatment outcomes.