🇬🇧 Development of functionally diverse dendritic cell subsets

Our work centers on the functional and developmental diversity in the immune system’s ‘conventional’ or ‘classical’ dendritic cells (cDC). Much or our recent work has elaborated a series of transcription events that induce the specification and commitment of progenitors into the so called type 1 cDC (cDC1) that is a requirement for priming CD8 T cell responses against certain viruses and tumors. We will discuss recent work in the area of divergence of the common dendritic cell progenitor (CDP) into the type 1 cDC (cDC1) and cDC2 related to this cascade including the factors Nfil3, Zeb2, Id2, Batf3, Irf8, C/EBP , C/EBP , as well as several enhancers of these genes that link them together into coherent network. New findings regarding the Irf8 superenhancer and the intercommunication between its internal constituents may be discussed. An notable finding relates to the ‘suboptimization’ of the Irf8 +32 kb enhancer, which suboptimization is surprisingly necessary
cDC2 commitment. Finally, with respect to the cDC1 crosspresentation of cell-associated antigens, we will report on new results related to the function of the BEACH family protein WDFY4.