An international team of researchers led by Christopher E. Rudd, Doctor of Immunology, Professor of Medicine at Université de Montréal and researcher at the Centre de recherche de l'Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont recently identified a new gene called SKAP1 that binds to a key enzyme PLK1 that is required for the regulation of the cycle of T cells, which destroy infected cells in the body.
Modulating the SKAP1-PLK1 interaction through new therapies will help patients fight dangerous bacterial and viral infections and better respond to cancer immunotherapy.
“Since we now understand how each protein binds to the other, we can identify target drugs that either interfere with or promote their interaction to find the best treatment for different disease contexts.”
The paper on this discovery was published in scientific Reports.
About Dr. Christopher E. Rudd
Recently recruited by the CR-HMR, Christopher E. Rudd, specializes in the signalling mechanisms that control the immune function of T lymphocytes. In addition to being a professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Department of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology at Université de Montréal, he is also Director of the Cell Signalling in Immunotherapy Research Unit and Chief of the Immunology and Oncology research axis at the CR-HMR.
He has won several international awards, such as a Scholar of the Leukemia Society of America, the Cancer Research Institute Investigator Award (New York), the Claudia Adams Research Award (Boston), and a Principal Research Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust (United Kingdom). He acquired and reinforced his skills as a professor and researcher at Cambridge and Harvard.
Learn more
For more information on T cells and the studies conducted by Christopher E. Rudd and his team, visit our press room (July 19, 2017 press release).