Intra- and inter-cellular communications of immune cells
Visualization and manipulation of nano-bio interactions. Heading link
THE PROBLEM: The recent success of nanocarrier-based COVID-19 mRNA vaccines leaves many questions unanswered. How do antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells, fetch and collect foreign antigens from spatially confined tissue spaces much smaller than the cell body? How do immune cells relay information over long distances many times the size of a cell? Understanding key mechanisms and harnessing them to modulate the immune system lies at the heart of this research.
OUR APPROACH: We utilize 3D single-particle tracking and superresolution imaging to study specialized membrane structures for intra- and inter-cellular communications of immune cells.
- H Jing, B Saed, M Pálmai, H Gunasekara, PT Snee, YS Hu*, Fluorescent artificial antigens revealed extended membrane networks utilized by live dendritic cells for antigen uptake, Nano Lett, 2022. PMID: 35499493 pdf Link
- H Jing, M Pálmai, B Saed, A George, PT Snee, YS Hu*, Cytosolic delivery of membrane-penetrating QDs into T cell lymphocytes: implications in immunotherapy and drug delivery, Nanoscale, 2021. PMID: 33688882 pdf Link
- B Saed, NT Ramseier, T Perera, J Anderson#, J Burnett, H Gunasekara, A Burgess, H Jing, YS Hu*, Increased Vesicular Dynamics and Nanoscale Clustering of IL-2 after T Cell Activation. Biophys J. 2024. Accepted. Link..