Home| Reader in Molecular Immunology |
Contact details:
| Tel: | +44 20 7882 2302 |
| Fax: | +44 20 7882 2194 |
| Email: | d.pennington@qmul.ac.uk |
| Address: | Centre for Immunology and Infectious Disease, |
Biography
I obtained my PhD from the National Institute for Medical Research in North London under the supervision of Dr. Elaine Dzierzak, where I studied the interaction of HIV accessory proteins with the host immune system. After spending a year at Yale University School of Medicine with Professor Richard Flavell, I moved to the lab of Dr. Mike Owen at Cancer Research UK , London , where I commenced my studies on T cell development. I moved to the Institute of Cell and Molecular Science from Professor Adrian Hayday 's Department of Immunobiology at Guy's King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine (Guy's Hospital), where my work focused on the development and function of unconventional T cells.
Research Activity
The organs in the body that interface with the environment (e.g. skin; gut; lungs etc), need immune surveillance, firstly to limit systemic propagation of any microbes that penetrate the epithelial barrier, and secondly to maintain epithelial integrity from the threat of mutagenesis and the potential for systemic dissemination of malignant cells. In this context, both the innate and adaptive immune systems, and specifically T cells, are involved in not only the eradication of pathogens, but also in protection against the initiation, growth and metastasis of non-viral tumours.
Our recent work has built on observations that immune surveillance of organs is critically contributed to by sets of unconventional T cells, some of which may be constitutively resident within particular, non-lymphoid tissues, e.g. the gut. Intriguingly, these intraepithelial T cell populations are not only capable of direct anti-pathogen and anti-tumour effector function, but are also often associated with anti-inflammatory immunoregulatory processes.
With this as a basis to our work, my lab will now focus on establishing an improved understanding of the development and function of unconventional T cells, focusing on their thymic development, and using the gut as a model system to study their function in the control of pathogens and in the immunosurveillance of malignancy.
Key Publications
• Ribot J. C., deBarros A., Pang D. J., Neves J. F., Peperzak V., Roberts S. J. Girardi M., Borst J. Hayday A. C., Pennington D. J., Silva-Santos B. (2009). CD27 is a thymic determinant of the balance between interferon-g- and interleukin-17-producing gd T cell subsets. Nat Immunol. 10(4) p427-436.
• Hayday A. C. and Pennington D. J. (2007). Key factors in the organised chaos of early T cell development Nat Immunol 8(2) p137-144.
• Pennington D. J., Silva-Santos B., Silberzahn T., Escorcio-Correia M., Woodward M. J., Roberts S. J., Smith A. L., Dyson P. J., and Hayday A. C. (2006). Early events in the thymus affect the balance of effector and regulatory T cells. Nature 444 (7122) p1073-1077.
• Pennington D. J.*, Silva-Santos B.* and Hayday A. C. (2005). Lymphotoxin-Mediated Regulation of gd Cell Differentiation by ab T Cell Progenitors. Science 307 p925-928. Published online 9th December 2004; 10.1126/science.1103978. (A "perspective" by E. Rothenberg accompanied this article). (* Joint authors)
• Pennington D. J. , Silva-Santos B. and Hayday A. C. (2005). gd T cell development - having the strength to get there. Curr Opin Immunol 17(2) p108-115.
• Pennington D. J. *, Silva-Santos B.*, Shires J., Theodoridis E., Pollitt C., Wise E. L., Tigelaar R. E., Owen M. J. and Hayday A. C. (2003). The inter-relatedness and interdependence of mouse T cell receptor gd+ and ab+ cells. Nat Immunol 4(10) p991-998. (* Joint authors)
