The talk will be about how unconventional T cells – especially MAIT cells – are triggered by infection and how they may influence disease outcomes. Such cells are a common part of our immune system but often overlooked. MAIT cells are highly conserved between different animals, but are present at very variable frequencies – recent data on this and their implications will be explored.

Paul Klenerman trained in medicine at Cambridge and Oxford and specialised in infectious diseases. He has been funded mainly by the Wellcome, initially working on HIV with Andrew McMichael and Rodney Phillips, then with Rolf Zinkernagel and Hans Hengartner in Zurich on LCMV and returning to Oxford to set up studies on T cells in chronic infections such as HCV and CMV. His group have worked on vaccines, especially adenoviral vector vaccines and the types of memory induced, including memory inflation. He currently has studies looking at unconventional T cells such as MAIT cells in infectious diseases and cancer funded by Wellcome and CRUK.