Description:

The Lurie Cancer Center Basic Research Seminar Series presents:

Reconstitution of a long-lived functional human thymus by postnatal clonogenic progenitors

Paola Bonfanti, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, 
UCL- UK
Group Leader, Francis Crick Institute – London, UK

The Bonfanti lab focuses on harnessing the power of stem cells  for regenerative medicine. The thymus is a primary lymphoid organ, essential for T cell maturation and selection. There has been long-standing interest in processes underpinning thymus generation and the potential to manipulate it clinically to ensure a healthy population of T cells. The lab has shown that epithelial-mesenchymal hybrid cells, capable of long-term expansion in vitro, can be used to reconstitute an anatomic phenocopy of the native thymus, when combined with thymic interstitial cells and a natural decellularised extracellular matrix (ECM) obtained by whole thymus perfusion. This anatomical human thymus reconstruction is functional, as judged by its capacity to support mature T cell development in vivo after transplantation into humanised immunodeficient mice. These findings establish a basis for dissecting the cellular and molecular crosstalk between stroma, ECM and thymocytes, and offer practical prospects for treating congenital and acquired immunological diseases, including cancer.

All members of the Northwestern Medicine community are invited to attend.