A Deep Dive into Immune Tolerance

You are kindly invited to a seminar, which will take place, Tuesday, February 18,  14:15 PM, at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Room 119.

The seminar will be given by: Ranit Kedmi, PhD

Weizmann Institute of Science.

The title of the talk is: " A Deep Dive into Immune Tolerance".

The iTreg response to dietary antigens and gut commensals plays a crucial role in restraining effector immune responses, making it essential for preventing allergies, food sensitivities, and chronic intestinal inflammation. As a result, there has been long-standing interest in understanding how these Treg cells are induced and function. While classical dendritic cells were traditionally thought to drive Treg responses to gut commensal and dietary antigens, we recently challenged this paradigm. Our findings reveal that a rare, novel antigen-presenting cell subset— which we term ‘Tolerocytes’— is exclusively responsible for initiating the iTreg response. Furthermore, we demonstrate that tolerance arises through a coordinated cellular network involving distinct antigen-presenting cell subsets and T cells, each playing a unique role. Finally, I will discuss how this design of cellular circuits can be beneficial, providing the immune system with a strategic advantage in balancing immune protection within the broader framework of tolerance.