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The
Determination of T Cell Fate 
Research in our laboratory is aimed at understanding how T cells develop
in the thymus and how they contribute to immune responses outside of it.
A major focus concerns how T cells use cell surface molecules to detect
and respond to changes in their environment. Members of the group employ
a combination of genetics and cellular immunology to study issues such
as the following:
- The molecular nature and biological function of signals delivered by
the pre-T cell receptor during early thymocyte development;
- The mechanism by which CD4 positively regulates antigen recognition
during thymocyte development and immune responses and the molecular basis
of CD4-independent T helper cell development;
- The mechanism by which CD5 negatively regulates T cell responsiveness
and the significance of this negative regulation for the formation of
the T cell receptor repertoire;
- The function of the CD134 (OX40) molecule „ this is a member of the
Tumor Necrosis Receptor family that is only expressed on activated T lymphocytes
during immune responses.
Selected Publications:
Killeen, N. and Littman, D.R. (1993) Helper T cell development in the
absence of CD4-p56lck association. Nature 364, 729-732.
Locksley, R.M., Reiner, S.L., Hatam, F. Littman, D.R and Killeen, N. (1993)
Helper T cells without CD4: control of Leishmaniasis in CD4-deficient
mice. Science 261, 1448- 1451.
Sawada, S., Scarborough, J., Killeen, N. and Littman, D.R. (1994) Lineage-specific
transcriptional silencing of the CD4 gene. Cell 17, 917-929.
Tarakhovsky, A., Kanner, S.B., Hombach, I., Ledbetter, J.A., Killeen,
N. and Rajewsky, K. (1995) A role for CD5 in TCR-mediated signal transduction
and thymocyte selection. Science 269, 535-537.
Killeen, N. (1997) Thy-1 - Hiding in full view. Current Biology. 7, R799-R807.
Irving, B.A., Alt, F.W. and Killeen, N. (1998) Thymocyte development in
the absence of pre-T cell receptor extracellular domains. Science 280,
905-908.
Contact Information:
Email: nigel@itsa.ucsf.edu
Phone: 415/ 502-5495
Address: Box 0414, Room HSE 300
The University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, (415) 476-9000
Copyright 2003, The Regents of the University of California.
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