Our single cell and spatial atlas of the developing human thymus is now out in Nature as part of the Human Cell Atlas paper collection. This is the result of a fantastic collaboration with the labs of Sarah Teichmann (Wellcome Sanger Institute) and Ron Germain (NIAID, NIH). Using spatial transcriptomics, high-plex protein imaging and multimodal single … Read more

The cross-talk between thymocytes and thymic stromal cells is fundamental for T cell development. In humans, intrathymic development of dendritic cells (DCs) is evident but its physiological significance is unknown. Here we showed that DC-biased precursors depended on the expression of the transcription factor IRF8 to express the membrane-bound precursor form of the cytokine TNF … Read more

γδ T cells are increasingly emerging as crucial immune regulators that can take on innate and adaptive roles in the defence against pathogens. Although they arise within the thymus from the same hematopoietic precursors as conventional αβ T cells, the development of γδ T cells is less well understood. For a special issue of Seminars … Read more