Epigenetic regulation of B cell immune responses and the formation of immunity

Vaccines exploit the ability of the immune system to provide heightened, tailored responses to pathogens if the host has been infected prior – this is termed immune memory. Antibody-based vaccines are vital for population health, yet very little is known about the factors that are required for antibody memory. This project will identify new regulators of immune memory by investigating histone modifications that allow antibody formation and memory persistence during a secondary response. We are investigating a number of key epigenetic modifiers in the regulation of immune responses to infection, therefore we have a number of projects available focusing on different complexes. The functions of these complexes in the immune system are critical to understand, given their roles in B cell-mediated lymphomas and autoimmunity. See Di Pietro et al Nature Immunology 2022 and Good-Jacobson et al PNAS 2014 for our previous work in this field.