Registration for a live webinar on 'The role of T cells in COVID from asymptomatic to severe outcomes' is now open.
See webinar detailsUpcoming Live Webinar
The role of T cells in COVID from asymptomatic to severe outcomes
Tuesday May 21, 2024
10:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM EDT / 6:00 PM BST / 7:00 PM CEST
10:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM EDT / 6:00 PM BST / 7:00 PM CEST
Although COVID-19 poses a significant threat to human health, around 20% of individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 remain asymptomatic. While much attention has been given to identifying factors that contribute to severe COVID-19, studying asymptomatic cases offers a valuable opportunity to explore early disease and immunological features that facilitate rapid viral clearance.
With our study on 29,947 individuals registered in the National Marrow Donor Program, part of the UCSF Citizen Science smartphone-based study aimed at tracking COVID-19 symptoms, we discovered a strong association between HLA-B*15:01 and asymptomatic infection (Augusto et al. Nature, 2023). This suggests the potential presence of a pre-existing immune response, towards the NQK-Q8 epitope, that would protect HLA-B15+ individuals, given the role of HLA in presenting viral peptides to T cells.
We identified the presence of high-affinity public TCRs able to cross-react with the seasonal coronavirus derived homologous peptide (NQK-A8). We have further studied those public TCRs to understand how they can engage with the homologous peptides, and with newly identified mutant peptide from the JLN1 variant. We discovered that the public TCRs were binding with an unusual docking mode onto the epitopes providing the basis of T cell cross-reactivity observed in HLA-B15+ individuals.
Speaker
Prof. Stephanie Gras
La Trobe University, Australia
Prof. Gras is an internationally recognised leader in the field of T cell Immunology and Structural Biology with a sustained record of high-quality publications in peer reviewed journals (> 130 publications in Nature, Science, Immunity, Nature Immunology, Science Immunology, Nature Communications, PNAS ...), a successful record of research funding (> $11M), a strong commitment to training high quality research students and early career researchers. Furthermore, she has demonstrated excellence in engaging with the media to disseminate her work to the wider community.
Prof. Gras was awarded highly competitive ARC Future Fellowship (2012-2016), CDF2 NHMRC fellowship, and an SRFA NHMRC fellowship (2019-23), the Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Biomedical Science (2017), SCANZ Sandy Mathieson Medal (2022), ASBMB Shimadzu Medal (2023), and invitations to present at national and international institutions and conferences.
In 2021, Stephanie was promoted to Professor (adjunct) at Monash University and moved to La Trobe University to take a Professorial position. In 2022, she was appointed Deputy Director of the La Trobe University Institute for Molecular Science to help transition the institute toward new challenges.
Prof. Gras’ research is instrumental on providing a better understanding of the first key event in T cell-mediated immunity towards pathogens: the antigen recognition mechanism. Understanding antigen recognition using structural biology offers tremendous opportunities to design new therapies that mobilise, reprogram, or boost the immune system.