Dr Arwen Altenburg

Research focus: MHC-I antigen processing and presentation in virus immune detection and evasion

Major Histocompatibility Complex class I (MHC-I) molecules are essential for orchestrating immune responses to tumours and pathogen-infected cells. They do this by presenting protein fragments, i.e. peptides, at the cell surface for surveillance by immune cells. When CD8+ T cells detect a foreign (viral) peptide presented by MHC-I, they will proceed to lysing the target cell.

Immunogenic peptides are generated and selected for presentation in the MHC-I antigen processing and presentation pathway. To evade immune detection, some viruses have evolved strategies to manipulate MHC-I molecules directly or to interfere with other proteins in the pathway. We are interested in exploring the MHC-I antigen processing and presentation pathway in virus infections to i) gain a better understanding of immune detection of virus-infected cells and ii) to explore novel strategies by which viruses evade MHC-I pathway proteins. Ultimately, characterisation of these dynamics can inform development of novel vaccines and therapeutics.