COMPARATIVE IMMUNOLOGY

Prof Cliona O’Farrelly

Prof Cliona O’Farrelly
Phone: +353-1-8963175
Fax: +353-1-6772400
Email: cliona.ofarrelly@tcd.ie
Location: Room 4.12 Biomedical Sciences Institute

Research Interests

Comparative Regional Immunity
The gut, liver and uterus are sites of intense immunological activity even when healthy. In these organs, harmless foreign antigens of commensal and foetal origin require tolerance while at the same time, effective tumour and pathogen surveillance must be maintained. The different, complex lymphoid repertoires in these organs has been a focus of research for our research group for over two decades. We were amongst the first in the world to describe the liver as a site of regional immunity and also the amongst first to emphasise difference between circulating, hepatic and uterine NK cells We have published over 40 papers in this area, many of which explore the changes in the function and phenotype of local lymphoid populations associated with malignant and infectious disease, particularly hepatitis C infection, and with infertility. We have also been amongst the first to hypothesise that lymphoid populations might differentiate at these sites of regional immunity and have published papers describing functional haematopoietic cells in adult human gut, liver and uterus (HSCs). We are particularly excited by the possibility that these HSCs might give rise to regional populations of NK cells and perhaps even invariant NKT cells, a population to have particularly potent anti tumour activity. We have recently found that human omentum is a major site of iNKT accumulation. We are exploring the anti tumour potential of these cells in colorectal cancer and how it is impacted by obesity.
Key Publications

Hepatitis C Virus Infection
Because of our interest in liver immunology, of course we want to know how it impacts on hepatitis C virus infection. In collaboration with several groups in Ireland and abroad we have been particularly interested in why some people are more susceptible to chronic HCV infection than others. We also want to know how the virus manages to evade several immune mechanisms.
HCV Publications

The Avian Immune System
Since first discovering (in collaboration with Dan Branton of Harvard University and Chris Wanke of the Deaconess Hospital, Boston) that hen egg yolk has powerful anti bacterial potential (16, 19), the CI group has been investigating the chicken innate immune system with a view to understanding susceptibility and resistance to microorganisms of relevance to human health, particularly Salmonella and Campylobacter. By exploiting bioinformatic technologies in tandem with molecular biological approaches, the group has discovered clusters of new anti-microbial peptides in the chicken genome (12,13) as well as an avian specific TLR, TLR15 (11). We are particularly interested in understanding how these molecules and chicken immune mechanisms in general control the response to Campylobacter jejuni ,which causes no pathology in chicken but is the most significant cause of gastroenteritis in humans (1,5). A genetic evolutionary approach to this question is being pursued in collaboration with Professor Dan Bradley of the Genetics Department in TCD and Dr.Andrew Lloyd of the School of Biochemistry & Immunology (2,3,4,7,8).
Key Publications

Research Personnel

Post doctoral researchers
Dr Andrew T Lloyd
Dr Elizabeth Ryan
Dr Nigel Stevenson

Research Associates
Fernando Narciandi
Catherine Keogh
Emma McGrath
Dr Anne McCourt

MD students
Dr Shahzad Sarwar

Graduate Students
Paul Cormican
Ronan Shaughnessy
Cormac Whelehan
Aideen Collins
Nollaig Bourke
Ronan Fahey
Aoife Kelly

Funding

Our group is currently funded under the National Development Plan by the Irish Department of Agriculture and Food under its Food Institution Research Measure FIRM, under its Research Stimulus Fund RSF, and also by the Health Research Board and Science Foundation Ireland.
DAF: Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM) 2006
DAF: Research Stimulus Fund (RSF) 2006

Collaborators

John Hegarty, Aiden McCormick Justin Geoghegan, Oscar Traynor, SVUH/UCD

Kingston Mills, Clair Gardiner, TCD

Aideen Long, Dermot Kelleher, Suzanne Norris, Derek Doherty, St.James's Hospital/ TCD

Steven Stewart, Mater Hospital, Dublin

Positive Action Dublin

Mark Exley, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Hugo Rosen and Lucy Golden Mason, Division Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Colorado.

Recent Publications by Cliona O’Farrelly and the Comparative Immunology Group.