Liston-Dooley Group

Our Research

The Liston-Dooley lab aims to understand the interaction of the immune system and the tissues during pathology and to exploit this understanding for therapeutic advantage.

In particular, we are currently focused on regulatory T cells in the tissues and the potential these anti-inflammatory cells have to control pathology during injury, autoimmunity and infection in key sites such as the brain and lung. The laboratory has extensive experience in mouse immunology, clinical immunology, immunogenetics, neuroimmunology, systems immunology, disease models, high-dimensional flow cytometry, and vector engineering.

Our laboratory is based within the Department of Pathology of the University of Cambridge. We aim to understand the interaction of the immune system and the tissues during pathology and to harness this understanding for therapeutic benefit. In particular, we are currently focused on regulatory T cells in the tissues and the potential these anti-inflammatory cells have to control pathology during injury, autoimmunity and infection in key sites such as the brain and lung. The laboratory has extensive experience in mouse immunology, clinical immunology, immunogenetics, neuroimmunology, systems immunology, disease models, high-dimensional flow cytometry, and vector engineering.

The Liston-Dooley lab started in 2009 when Prof Adrian Liston and Dr James Dooley developed an independent research laboratory at the University of Leuven Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the VIB Center for Brain and Disease Research. The laboratory successfully ran a translational and clinical immunology program for 10 years and started up core facilities in flow cytometry and genome engineering before moving the lab to the Babraham Institute. Between 2019 and 2023, the Liston-Dooley lab worked on biotechnology developments in neuroinflammation, developing new therapeutic approaches and setting up a spin-off company Aila Biotech Ltd. In 2023, the Liston-Dooley laboratory relocated to the Department of Pathology, where Liston took the position of Professor of Pathology.

Previous research topics in the laboratory are now continued in the independent labs of alumni Prof Susan Schlenner, Prof Stephanie Humblet-Baron, Prof Lidia Yshii, Prof Kailash Singh, and Prof Emanuela Pasciuto, through programs that are now core facilities, FACS Core and MutaMouse, and through the spin-off company Aila Biotech.

Listen to an interview with Adrian on Nature Podcast here to learn more about the lab.

Recent Publications

Oliver T. Burton, Orian Bricard, Samar Tareen, Vaclav Gergelits, Simon Andrews, Laura Biggins, Carlos P. Roca, Carly Whyte, Steffie Junius, Aleksandra Brajic, Emanuela Pasciuto, Magda Ali, Pierre Lemaitre, Susan M. Schlenner, Harumichi Ishigame, Brian D. Brown, James Dooley, Adrian Liston, The tissue-resident regulatory T cell pool is shaped by transient multi-tissue migration and a conserved residency program, Immunity, 2024, ISSN 1074-7613, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2024.05.023.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1074761324002772)

Liston A, Fitzgerald DC. Nurturing a positive research culture within your organization. Immunol Cell Biol. 2024 Jun 13. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12795. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38871636.

Liston A. Designing interview questions to find the right candidate. Immunol Cell Biol. 2024 May 30. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12788. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38815998.

Makuyana N, Liston A. Highlight of 2023: Tregs in the lungs. Immunol Cell Biol. 2024 May 2. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12771. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38695211.

Liston A. Harnessing our lived experience for science communication. Nat Rev Immunol. 2024 Jun;24(6):375-376. doi: 10.1038/s41577-024-01037-1. PMID: 38658707.

Dashwood A, Liston A. Highlight of 2023: Microglia biology. Immunol Cell Biol. 2024 Apr 23. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12754. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38651261.

Liston A. Renewing an author-centric publication process. Immunol Cell Biol. 2024 Feb;102(2):75-78. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12722. Epub 2024 Jan 11. PMID: 38212948.

Liston A, Pasciuto E, Fitzgerald DC, Yshii L. Brain regulatory T cells. Nat Rev Immunol. 2024 May;24(5):326-337. doi: 10.1038/s41577-023-00960-z. Epub 2023 Dec 1. PMID: 38040953.

Lemaitre P, Tareen SH, Pasciuto E, Mascali L, Martirosyan A, Callaerts-Vegh Z, Poovathingal S, Dooley J, Holt MG, Yshii L, Liston A. Molecular and cognitive signatures of ageing partially restored through synthetic delivery of IL2 to the brain. EMBO Mol Med. 2023 Mar 28:e16805. doi: 10.15252/emmm.202216805. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36975362.

Willemsen M, Barber JS, Nieuwenhove EV, Staels F, Gerbaux M, Neumann J, Prezzemolo T, Pasciuto E, Lagou V, Boeckx N, Filtjens J, De Visscher A, Matthys P, Schrijvers R, Tousseyn T, O'Driscoll M, Bucciol G, Schlenner S, Meyts I, Humblet-Baron S, Liston A. Homozygous DBF4 mutation as a cause of severe congenital neutropenia. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2023 Feb 24:S0091-6749(23)00230-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2023.02.016. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36841265.

Roca CP, Burton OT, Neumann J, Tareen S, Whyte CE, Gergelits V, Veiga RV, Humblet-Baron S, Liston A. A cross-entropy test allows quantitative statistical comparison of t-SNE and UMAP representations. Cell Rep Methods. 2023 Jan 13;3(1):100390. doi: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2022.100390. PMID: 36814837; PMCID: PMC9939422.

Whyte CE, Tumes DJ, Liston A, Burton OT. Do More with Less: Improving High Parameter Cytometry Through Overnight Staining. Curr Protoc. 2023 Jan;3(1):e678. doi: 10.1002/cpz1.678. Erratum for: Curr Protoc. 2022 Nov;2(11):e589. PMID: 36688737.

Hua Y, Vella G, Rambow F, Allen E, Martinez AA, Duhamel M, Takeda A, Jalkanen S, Junius S, Smeets A, Nittner D, Dimmeler S, Hehlgans T, Liston A, Bosisio FM, Floris G, Laoui D, Hollmén M, Lambrechts D, Merchiers P, Marine JC, Schlenner S, Bergers G. Cancer immunotherapies transition endothelial cells into HEVs that generate TCF1⁺ T lymphocyte niches through a feed-forward loop. Cancer Cell. 2023 Jan 9;41(1):226. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2022.12.006. Erratum for: Cancer Cell. 2022 Dec 12;40(12):1600-1618.e10. PMID: 36626867.

Liston A, Yshii L. T cells drive ageing of the brain. Nat Immunol. 2023 Jan;24(1):12-13. doi: 10.1038/s41590-022-01390-0. PMID: 36596892.