Physiological functions of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in innate and adaptive immune responses

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-dependent transcription factor recently shown to play an important role in the immune system, although mechanistic insight is limited. Professor Stockinger plans to investigate the physiological functions of the AhR in the immune system. The programme of work includes: identifying protein interactions with AhR in different cell types and immunological conditions using AhR-FTAP mice; investigating the physiological regulation of AhR signalling via metabolic enzymes; analysing mice with cell-type-specific AhR deletions in order to identify cell-intrinsic consequences of defective AhR signalling; and testing the hypothesis that rapid degradation of physiological AhR ligands may result in dysregulation of immune responses at mucosal barrier sites.