Immune recognition by non-catalytic tyrosine-phosphorylated receptors

Professor van der Merwe's research aims to increase our understanding of the molecular and biophysical rules governing recognition by leukocyte receptors, a process that underpins immune responses. He has generated important biophysical data on the interactions that occur between T-cell antigen receptors (TCRs) and their surface-anchored ligands, and has demonstrated that the sizes of the molecules involved in the formation of the immunological synapse play a key role in the resulting signalling outcome. This has led him to propose a novel model of TCR triggering called the kinetic-segregation (K-S) model. Recently he has proposed that other leukocyte non-catalytic tyrosine-phosphorylated receptors (NTRs) are also triggered by the K-S mechanism. Professor van der Merwe will now address three main aims: to determine the mechanism of NTR triggering upon ligand binding; to explore how NTRs integrate their signals with each other and with other receptors; and to elucidate the mechanisms driving, and functional consequences of, NTR aggregation into clusters.