Wed Tech Talk: T-Cell Receptor Signaling

Join us at this week’s Tech Talk when Bin Hu, of the Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, and the Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, will discuss recent work aimed at developing a predictive agent-based model for early events in T cell receptor signaling.

T cells, or T lymphocytes, play an important role in adaptive immunity. T cells recognize antigens via cell-surface receptor proteins. Two of the most important receptors are the T cell receptor (TCR) and CD28, a TCR co-receptor. Unlike receptors in many other signal transduction pathways, TCR and CD28 have no inherent kinase activity. Instead, TCR and CD28 recruit an array of cytoplasmic kinases to the inner surface of the cell membrane to initiate cytoplasmic signal transduction upon successful receptor-antigen recognition and recruitment of cytoplasmic kinases to receptors trigger a complex cascade of protein-protein interactions that involves both positive and negative feedbacks.

The model is perhaps the most detailed mechanistic hypothesis ever postulated for how TCR signaling works. The talk will also cover the challenges of annotating and visualizing such a large, complicated model.

This week, instead of adjourning to lunch at Tesoro’s after the talk, we’ll take lunch orders and bring food in so  conversations can continue over lunch.