National University of Ireland, Maynooth

National University of Ireland, Maynooth
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Faculties & Departments

Department of Biology

Marion Butler, BSc (Coleraine), PhD (NUI)
Head of Laboratory

 

Cell Signalling Laboratory

Institute of Immunology

Research Interests

My research interest is probing at the molecular level key signalling events that ultimately lead to an effective immune response to pathogen. There exist two arms of an immune response, the innate immune response which is the first line of defence against pathogen and a later activated adaptive immune response. My research focuses on gaining insight into the complexity of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signalling, the activation of which is now recognized to be central to the regulation of innate and adaptive immune systems against pathogens. TLRs are expressed by immune cells including dendritic cells and B cells and recognize diverse pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Stimulation of these receptors activates a number of intracellular signalling cascades that lead to an immediate immune response against pathogen by promoting an inflammatory or anti-viral state as well as triggering the activation of cells from the adaptive immune response. Specifically my research will be exploring the functional roles of proteins from these pathways with a focus on furthering our mechanistic insight into novel negative regulators of TLR signalling pathways. This understanding could potentially translate into possible therapeutic intervention of harmful inflammatory conditions such as sepsis. My research interests will also focus on exploring how TLR signalling contributes to naïve and memory B cell activation. This work involves defining the B cell stimulation context under which TLR stimulation contributes to naïve/memory B cell activation, before analyzing the downstream TLR-intracellular signalling cascades that are activated and defining the critical events at the molecular level that connects TLR stimulation to B cell activation.

Postgraduate

  • Daniela Bruni

Last edited: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2011 10:23:11 GMT

Biology Department , NUI Maynooth
Tel: +353-1-708 3843 | Fax: +353-1-708 3845| Email: terry.roche@nuim.ie