Lead Researcher: Professor Jonathan M Austyn

Langerhans cells (red)
and gamma-delta T cells (green)
in skin epidermis,
Liddington and Austyn

 Dendritic cells play central roles in the initiation and regulation of immune responses, an area in which Professor Austyn has been working for over twenty years. There is now considerable international interest in the possibility that dendritic cells might be used for immunotherapy of cancer and infectious diseases.

Dendritic Cells for New Immunotherapies

Network of Excellence. European Commission 6th Framework Programme Initiative - Project Number 512074, Over the next 5 years, Professor Jonathan Austyn is leading this ambitious €7.6 million initiative to integrate the activities of over 35 European research groups of scientists, clinicians, and Small Medium Enterprises to translate genomics, proteomics and findings from pre-clinical studies into clinical trials for cancer and HIV. For more information visit the DC-THERA website

In Situ Vaccination Strategies

Stephen Preston, an MRC collaborative fellow with Powdermed – formerly Powderject – and Debbie Lynch an MRC fellow, are using GeneGun technologies to administer chemokine constructs and recruit dendritic cell subsets for development of new vaccine strategies.

Tick-Pharming

Chrissoula Kouremenou, a Bodassaki Fellow, in collaboration with Professor Pat Nuttall, OBE, from the National Environment Research Council’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, has identified components of tick saliva that modulate DC function and which could be used in new vaccine strategies

MSc Integrated Immunology

Professor Austyn and Dr Helen Chapel are Co-Directors of the new one-year, full-time taught MSc course in Integrated Immunology, which is the first international course of its type. For more information visit the MSc Immunology course website

Areas of Expertise

Scanning electon micrograph of a dendritic cell (D)
crawling under an endothelial cell (En) and about to
migrate through a pore in an artificial membrane;
a lymphocyte (L) is also shown

Transplantation

• Described migration pathways of dendritic cells in experimental transplantation
• Visualised migration of dendritic cells (Langerhans cells) from skin epidermis into dermal lymphatics
• Discovery of the blood migration pathway for dendritic cells and a new paradigm for understanding rejection of solid organ transplants

Infection and Immunity

• Described, with Dr Steve Lin, Professor Rodney Phillips and colleagues, how the envelope protein of HIV can be a chemoattractant for dendritic cells
• Demonstrated with Dr Britta Urban and Professor David Roberts and colleagues how malaria-infected parasites can inhibit dendritic cell function

Oncology 

• A pilot study was conducted in Oxford by Professor Austyn, Dr David Chao and colleagues, in collaboration with Prof Adrian Harris and Prof Vincenzo Cerundolo, in which dendritic cells were injected directly into skin metastases of cancer patients. The treatment was shown to be safe, and could enhance responses to recall antigens in some patients

Dendritic Cell-based Immunotherapy

• Professor Austyn with Professor Barbara Fazekas de St Groth of the Centenary Institute for Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology in Sydney, Australia, have initiated clinical trials of dendritic cell-based immunotherapy for women with advanced ovarian cancer. The first results from this trial will be reported shortly