Research: I plan to study the role of recirculating thymic regulatory T (RT-Treg) cells in immune homeostasis and central tolerance. It has been shown that RT-Treg cells accumulate when AIRE+ medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTEC) abundance starts to decline, and that they are directly involved in removing AIRE+ mTECs. In addition, it was shown that the accumulation of RT-Tregs can inhibit de novo Treg generation from the thymus by IL-2 competition and possibly via other means as well. So we hypothesize that RT-Treg accumulation in the thymus is a means of switching the focus of our immune system from tolerance (autoimmunity prevention) during the perinatal period to stronger immunity (protection against pathogens) during the later period in life.
