Immunosurveillance of healthy and dysregulated epithelia: Identifying the lingua franca.

12:00 DKFZ 
Main Auditorium


Host: H-R. Rodewald

Biosketch Adrian Hayday

A graduate of Queen's College Cambridge, Professor Hayday obtained a PhD in Tumour Virology in 1978 and undertook post-doctoral training at MIT. In 1998, after 13 years on the faculty of the Departments of Biology and Immunobiology at Yale University, he returned to Guy’s Hospital London, to the Kay Glendinning Professor & Chair in the Department of Immunobiology at King's College. He has published over 150 papers, and among other things, contributed to the cloning of the T-cell receptor (TCR), in particular the unanticipated TCR-gamma chain genes. Together with Professor Robert Tigelaar (Yale) and other long-standing collaborators, Professor Hayday has succeeded in identifying critical roles for gamma-delta T cells in resistance to solid tumours, and in immunoregulation, particularly within tissues. In 1997, he received the William Clyde DeVane Medal, Yale College's highest honour for teaching and scholarship, and he was elected a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2002. He advises several scientific bodies, including the Wellcome Trust where he chairs the funding committee in Basic Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and sits on the Strategy Committee.

 Professor Hayday’s laboratory employs molecular biology approaches to understand how lymphocytes function within tissues, and how those functions may contribute to human health and disease. The laboratory’s basic research includes model systems that permit fundamental questions about immune surveillance to be asked.  The molecules and mechanisms identified by those studies are then examined for human counterparts that may teach us about pathogenesis, and provide new tools for application in clinical trials that we undertake. Likewise, we undertake innovative sponsored research agreements relating to the development of novel immunotherapeutics.  Although each researcher in the laboratory pursues a clearly defined project, great emphasis is placed on the synergies that can be realised through small teams of researchers working together on the following areas.