Research / Clinical Summary

Hilde Cheroutre, PhD Associate Professor, Developmental Immunology Contact by Email

Dr. Cheroutre's research is focused predominantly on several aspects of the mucosal immune system and, in particular, on the mucosal T cells of the intestine. The intestine is a major T cell organ and together with the conventional T cells, the intestine harbors unique subsets of T cells which differ phenotypically and functionally from T cells elsewhere in the body. The intestine of higher vertebrates has developed sophisticated and complex mechanisms to provide a highly regulated balance between effective immune protection against invading pathogens and tolerance to harmless food antigens and beneficial commensals. All mucosal T cells are antigen experienced lymphocytes and although this is a hallmark of these T cells, the pathway that they took to differentiate to this stage or the antigens they recognize are very different.

We study the differentiation processes that generate the various subsets of mucosal T cells, including selection in the thymus as well as memory differentiation in the periphery. Many of the mucosal T cells have acquired regulatory functions as part of their differentiation process centrally in the thymus or in the periphery. Defects in their development or differentiation, can lead to severe immune pathology locally in the intestine as well as systemically. We study several animal models of mucosal infections and immune diseases that are mediated by defects of the mucosal T cells in order to understand disease patterns and cell transformation and to identify and develop new and improved therapies to treat chronic intestinal inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, cancers and other immune disorders.

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