Peter Aidan Savage
University of Chicago, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
About one in twenty people in the United States has an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues. The body tries to stop this.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biophysics
- Topics
autoimmunity
autoimmune disease
immune tolerance
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2031
What they work on
- Define the biophysical and structural basis by which T cell receptors from regulatory and conventional CD4+ T cells recognize the same self-peptide displayed on MHC class II, testing whether a more centered binding mode increases signaling sensitivity.
- Track the developmental paths and autoimmune potential of self-reactive T cell clones whose receptors differ in binding features, following them through the thymus, the periphery and autoimmune target organs in mice.
- Define the pathways that control the development in the thymus and the maintenance in the body of B cell-dependent regulatory T cell clones, which were first identified by single-cell RNA sequencing and TCR repertoire profiling in mice.
- Determine how B cell-dependent regulatory T cells regulate self-reactive B cells and autoantibody production, both at steady state and after an immune response is induced.
- Identify the natural self-peptide ligands that B cell-dependent regulatory T cells recognize when these peptides are displayed by B cells.
More about the research
Some self-reactive immune cells are deleted during development, and others become regulatory T (Treg) cells, which carry a gene switch called Foxp3 and suppress immune attacks. These safeguards are imperfect, however, so some self-reactive cells escape and must be held in check for life. The research asks how regulatory T cells recognize self molecules and how they control the immune cells that can cause autoimmunity. One project focuses on helper T cells and the other on antibody-making B cells.
Why it matters
Many autoimmune diseases depend on self-reactive helper T cells or on B cells that make autoantibodies. Knowing how regulatory T cells and disease-causing T cells recognize the same self molecules could explain why control breaks down in some people. Mapping how Treg cells keep self-reactive B cells in check could help reveal targets for preventing or treating autoimmune disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kristin A. Hogquist
University of Minnesota, MN·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether interferon made in the thymus trains developing T cells to tolerate self-antigens that are switched on by interferon, as happens during inflammation.
Ellen Robey
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Microbiology & Immunology
Define the molecular links between different branches of T cell receptor (TCR) signaling and the transcription factor network that specifies the CD4 helper fate, guided by a high-resolution single-cell map of T cell development.
Hussein Sultan
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how the EBI3 subunit of the suppressive cytokine IL-35 drives induction of Tr1 regulatory CD4 T cells, using IL-35 reporter mice in established tumor models to identify which cells produce it.
The school
University of Chicago: 39 labs on PI Pages, $681M a year on research, 457 research doctorates a year.
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