La Jolla Institute For Allergy and Immunology - Research - T Cell Activation

T Cell Activation

Ammon Altman Ph.D. has researched how T lymphocytes cells spring into action when they encounter an infected cell. This has turned up several important findings, most notably the discovery of an enzyme - protein kinase C theta - which may hold the key to controlling immune response. Better understanding of the process of T cell activation will allow scientists to design treatments aimed at either boosting an immune response, such as to fight cancer, or to suppress an unwanted immune attack on normal cells, which occurs in autoimmune disease.