Developmental Immunology

Our research

The dogma of hematopoiesis states that bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) produce a life time supply of blood and immune cells with limited lifespans and require continuous replenishment. However, antibody producing B cells in unperturbed adult mice are ontogenically distinct with a significant portion being generated within the first weeks of life and self-sustaining throughout adulthood. Our previous work has demonstrated a critical role for the Lin28b RNA binding protein in mediating a juvenile-to-adult switch in B cell output at the level of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (Yuan et al. Science, 2012, Kristiansen et al. Immunity, 2016). Currently, we are focused on pursuing the molecular, cellular and environmental determinants that control the timing and outcome of this developmental switch as well as its impact on host immunity and disease.

By combining several lineage tracing approaches that traces the emergence of immune cells from HSCs across developmental time, with antigen receptor repertoire analyses, well-established immunization strategies, and cancer models, our work has the following major objectives:

Aims

• Peeling back the layers of the B cell compartment to resolve the division of labour among ontogenically distinct B cell subsets in health and disease.
• Interrogating the early-life molecular, cellular and environmental events responsible for a developmental switch in immune cell output.

Impact

Our lineage tracing approach excels at establishing causality between developmental and immunological events disparate in time and space and represents a new way of stratifying the adaptive immune system. Our work addresses important gaps in our knowledge of how nature and nurture shapes the formation of a complex and balanced immune system with important implications in life-long health and the origin of B cell cancers at the extremes of age.

List of Team Yuan's publications

Team

(name linked to profile in Lund University research portal)

Joan Yuan

Principal Investigator, Joan [dot] Yuan [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se

Elena Boldrin

Postdoc, elena [dot] boldrin [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se

Stefano Vergani

Postdoc, Stefano [dot] Vergani [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se

Niklas Krausse

PhD student, Niklas [dot] Krausse [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se

Selene Sodini

PhD student, Selene [dot] Sodini [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se

Hugo Åkerstrand

PhD student, Hugo [dot] Akerstrand [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se

Giorgia Montano

Research Engineer, Giorgia [dot] Montano [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se

Karin Olsson

Research Engineer, Karin [dot] Olsson [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se