RESEARCH PROFILE

Current Research - Immunology
Dynamics and efficacy of the cellular immune system. Present research is aimed at elucidating the relationships between immune response efficacy and the statistical distributions of T cell specificities among the naive repertoire and among T cell populations which respond to given antigenic challenges. At the heart of the theory is a model of T cell receptor triggering kinetics, which relates T cell specificity to the distribution of antigenic peptide-presenting MHC molecules on the conjugate cell. This kinetic model allows us to describe how measures for T cell specificity functionally depend upon MHC-presentation levels. An example of such a specificity measure is the fraction of naive T cell clonotypes that will respond to a given antigen; another example is the rate at which cytolytic effector cells destroy target cells. Such specificity measures (as well as their distributions) underly the dynamics of T cell activation and of the ensuing effector response, which in turn determine response efficacy. The ultimate goal of this programme is to link immune efficacy in a quantitative manner MHC/antigen presentation levels on antigen-presenting cells.

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

• Comprehensive Analysis of T-cell receptor degeneracy and T-cell crossreactivity: Sub-contract on BBSRC Project, Funded by: Cardiff University, Project Start Date: 01/01/2010 Project End Date: 31/12/2014
  
  

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Van den Berg, H. A.(2009) 'Design principles for adaptive cellular immunity for artificial immune systems' Soft Computing 13 (11), 1073 - 1080 (1432-7643)
• Lissina, A., Ladell, K., Skowera, A., Clement, M., Edwards, E., Seggewiss, R., Van den Berg, H. A., Gostick, E., Gallagher, K., Jones, E., Melenhorst, J. J., Godkin, A. J., Peakman, M., Price, D. A., Sewell, A. K. and Wooldridge, L.(2009) 'Protein kinase inhibitors substantially improve the physical detection of T-cells with peptide-MHC tetramers' Journal Of Immunological Methods 340 (1), 11 - 24
• Pattaranit, P. and Van den Berg, H. A.(2008) 'Mathematical models of energy homeostasis' Journal Of The Royal Society Interface 5 (27), 1119 - 1135 (1742-5689)
• Van den Berg, H. A., Orlov, M. V. and Kiselëv, Y. N.(2008) 'The Malthusian parameter in microbial ecology and evolution: an optimal control treatment' Mathematical Modelling 19 (4), 406 - 428 (0270-0255)
• Pattaranit, R., Van den Berg, H. A. and Spanswick, D.(2008) 'The development of insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes: insights from knockout studies' Science Progress 91 (3), 285 - 316 (0036-8504)

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