Professor Philip G Ashton-Rickardt

Memory T lymphocytes form the basis of immunological memory through their ability to rapidly eliminate invaders. We work on understanding the molecular basis of how memory T lymphocytes develop and how they are maintained. Our goal is to identify and characterise factors that protect memory cells from death and ensure their long-term survival through the activation of stem cell programmes for self-renewal.

We hope that the research proposed will lead to an improvement in vaccination through the induction of potent T cell memory and may provide a target for the elimination of auto-immune memory T cells.