Synthetic Antigen Presenting Cells (sAPC): The lab has developed a system that mimics the physiological interactions among T cells and APC. It uses synthetic antigen presenting cells (sAPC), composed of a liposome, in which MHC class II–peptide molecules are incorporated. The composition of these sAPC allows free movement of the MHC–peptide complexes in the artificial membrane. This multivalent system allows identification and stimulation of antigen-specific T cells, thus offering a new tool to study and, in the near future, manipulate immune responses.

The lab believes that an entirely artificial method enables the organization of relevant T cell ligands into membrane microdomains and allows for easy manipulation of these components in terms of concentration, relative density and affinity to achieve physiological antigen presentation and that this system will prove to be a valid tool to expand and modulate ex vivo antigen-specific T cells, which are rare or otherwise difficult to expand. The lab has had great success using sAPC.

T Cell Capture: T Cell Capture (TCC) utilizes the aAPCs (described in the “Areas of Research” page) to identify and enumerate antigen specific T cells, evaluate changes in T cell function and opens the way for expansion of rare antigen specific cells. Changes in membrane molecules, MHC and peptide types and densities can be made according to the need of each situation. This flexibility allows for manipulation of physiological T cell reactions.

We used our first generation of aAPCs to identify antigen specific T cells (1) and to gain more insight into general mechanisms of T cell responses (2) and specific T cell responses in an autoimmunity model (3). With the new generation of aAPCs, we studied T cell reactions in juvenile dermatomyositis (4), the role of regulatory T cells in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (5) and the efficacy of oral tolerance induction in a clinical trial in Rheumatoid Arthritis (6).

We are exploring the use of the T Cell Capture to expand numbers of rare antigen specific T cells. TCC may also be used in combination with various cell surface markers to monitor functional changes in the antigen specific T cells. Possible future applications of the method of T Cell Capture are ex vivo enhancement of anti-inflammatory reactions in immunodeficiency, such as the post-transplantation state, or in cancer.

iStudy: iStudy is a set of relational databases designed to allow meaningful and instantaneous interactions between seemingly disparate sources of data. The software suite is also designed to comprehensively address most operational issues typical of a research laboratory.

The Albani Lab is affiliated with the EUREKA Institute for Translational Medicine