The Vijayanand lab employs genomic and epigenomic tools to understand the molecular basis of asthma, making key contributions in understanding the immunological basis of asthma, including identifying CCR4 as a key chemokine receptor that regulates recruitment of T cells to the human asthmatic airways. Additionally, they clarified the role of iNKT cells in human asthma by carefully enumerating cell numbers in airway samples from asthma and COPD patients. Then, the lab applied epigenetic tools to identify genetic variants linked to asthma pathogenesis. More recently, the Vijayanand lab found key features in allergen- reactive T cells that confer protection or drive pathogenesis in asthma.
Selected References
Vijayanand P, Seumois G, Pickard C, Powell RM, Angco G, Sammut D, Gadola SD, Friedmann PS, Djukanovic R. (2007). Invariant natural killer T cells in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. New Engl J Med 356, 1410-1422. PMID: 17409322.
Seumois G, Chavez L, Gerasimova A, Lienhard M, Omran N, Kalinke L, Vedanayagam M, Ganesan AP, Chawla A, Djukanović R, Ansel KM, Peters B, Rao A, Vijayanand P. (2014). Epigenomic analysis of primary human T cells reveals novel enhancers associated with Th2 memory differentiation and asthma susceptibility. Nature Immunology 15(8):777-88. PMCID: PMC4140783
Seumois, G., Zapardiel-Gonzalo, J., White, B., Singh, D., Schulten, V., Dillon, M., Hinz, D., Broide, D.H, Sette, A., Peters, B., Vijayanand, P (2016). Transcriptional profiling of Th2 cells identifies pathogenic features associated with asthma. Journal of Immunology. PMCID: PMC4936908
Grégory Seumois, Ciro Ramírez-Suástegui, Benjamin J. Schmiedel, Shu Liang, Bjoern Peters, Alessandro Sette, Vijayanand P (2020). Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of allergen-specific T cells in allergy and asthma. Science Immunology. 2020 Jun 12;5(48):eaba6087. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.aba6087. PMID: 32532832. PMCID: PMC7372639.
Grants
NIH/NHLBI, UG1HL139117
San Diego Team Asthma Management using Phenotypes (STAMP)
NIH/NIAID U19AI135731
LJI Epitope Validation Center: Characterization of epitope-specific T cells responding to food, fungal and inner-city allergens
NIH/NIAID, R01AI121426
Epigenome-wide association study of childhood asthma
NIH/NHLBI, R01HL114093
Epigenetics of severe asthma
