Singularity cells in immunity and cancer development.
Name: Taku Okazaki 
Affiliation: Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, The University of Tokyo
Major: Immunology, Molecular Biology
Role: Singularity events in autoimmunity and cancer immunity.
Purpose:
Upon invasion of pathogens, dendritic cells capture and process antigens, move to lymphnodes, and present antigen to T cells. T cells are not readily activated upon recognition of their cognate antigen on dendritic cells but only T cells that meet various spacio-temporal and stochastic conditions are properly activated to mount optimal immune responses. Recent progress in cancer immunotherapy revealed that cancer cells acquire immune-evasion potential in tumor development or metastasis. However, the mechanisms how cancer cells acquire immune-evasion potential are not well understood. In the current project, we focus on autoimmunity, cancer immunity, tumor development, and metastasis that can be regarded as singularity events and aim to identify and characterize “signularity cells” that play pivotal roles in these singular events.
Name: Tomoya Katakai
Affiliation: Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences、Niigata University
Major: Immunology, Cell Biology
Role: Singularity events in cancer immunity and cancer metastasis.
Name: Hiroyasu Kidoya
Affiliation: Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui
Major: Vascular biology
Role: Live imaging of blood vessels in tumor tissues.
Name: Takumi Maruhashi
Affiliation: Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, The University of Tokyo
Major: Immunology
Role: Quantification of T cell function.