Rahul Roychoudhuri

Immunoregulation: Uncovering the 'brakes' on immune activation CD4+ and CD8+ T cells have a powerful ability to drive immune activation and promote clearance of infections and cancer. However, their function can also promote deleterious autoimmune and allergic inflammation. The immune system therefore employs a variety of suppressive mechanisms, collectively referred to as immunoregulatory mechanisms, to restrain excessive immune activation.

While immunoregulatory mechanisms play a beneficial role in preventing inflammation, they can also powerfully suppress immune responses during chronic infections and cancer in a process referred to as immunosuppression. Immunoregulatory mechanisms therefore function as 'brakes' on immune activation and are important therapeutic targets.

Our research aims to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of tolerance and immunosuppression in physiology, and during infection, inflammation and cancer. We hope that this will enable development of new therapies aimed at manipulating immune function in patients with inflammation and cancer.

Joining the group

Informal enquiries may be made by those wishing to make studentship or fellowship applications to undertake PhD and postdoctoral research in the group. These can be made by email and should include details of the applicant's research background and a curriculum vitae.

Key publications

For a full list of publications, click here.

BACH transcription factors in innate and adaptive immunity.
Igarashi K, Kurosaki T, Roychoudhuri R.
Nat Rev Immunol 2017 doi: 10.1038/nri.2017.26.

Ionic immune suppression within the tumour microenvironment limits T cell effector function.
Eil R, Vodnala SK, Clever D, Klebanoff CA, Sukumar M, Pan JH, Palmer DC, Gros A, Yamamoto TN, Patel SJ, Guittard GC, Yu Z, Carbonaro V, Okkenhaug K, Schrump DS, Marston Linehan W, Roychoudhuri R, Restifo NP.
Nature 2016 doi:10.1038/nature19364

Oxygen Sensing by T Cells Establishes an Immunologically Tolerant Metastatic Niche.
David Clever, Rahul Roychoudhuri, Michael G. Constantinides, Michael H. Askenase, Madhusudhanan Sukumar, Christopher A. Klebanoff, Robert L. Eil, Heather D. Hickman, Zhiya Yu, Jenny H. Pan, Douglas C. Palmer, Anthony T. Phan, John Goulding, Luca Gattinoni, Ananda W. Goldrath, Yasmine Belkaid, Nicholas P. Restifo.
Cell 2016 166:1117-31.

BACH2 regulates CD8(+) T cell differentiation by controlling access of AP-1 factors to enhancers.
Roychoudhuri, R, Clever D, Li P, Wakabayashi Y, Quinn KM, Klebanoff CA, Ji Y, Sukumar M, Eil RL, Yu Z, Spolski R, Palmer DC, Pan JH, Patel SJ, Macallan DC, Fabozzi G, Shih HY, Kanno Y, Muto A, Zhu J, Gattinoni L, O'Shea JJ, Okkenhaug K, Igarashi K, Leonard WJ, Restifo NP.
Nat Immunol 2016 17:851-60.

The transcription factor BACH2 promotes tumor immunosuppression.
Roychoudhuri R, Eil RL, Clever D, Klebanoff CA, Sukumar M, Grant F, Yu Z, Mehta G, Liu H, Jin P, Ji Y, Palmer DC, Pan JH, Chichura A, Crompton JG, Patel SJ, Stroncek D, Wang E, Marincola FM, Okkenhaug K, Gattinoni L, Restifo NP.
J Clin Invest 2016 126:599-604.

Super-enhancers delineate disease-associated regulatory nodes in T cells.
Vahedi G, Kanno Y, Furumoto Y, Jiang K, Parker SC, Erdos MR, Davis SR, Roychoudhuri R, Restifo NP, Gadina M, Tang Z, Ruan Y, Collins FS, Sartorelli V, O'Shea JJ.
Nature 2015 520:558-62.

BACH2 represses effector programs to stabilize T(reg)-mediated immune homeostasis.
Roychoudhuri R, Hirahara K, Mousavi K, Clever D, Klebanoff CA, Bonelli M, Sciumè G, Zare H, Vahedi G, Dema B, Yu Z, Liu H, Takahashi H, Rao M, Muranski P, Crompton JG, Punkosdy G, Bedognetti D, Wang E, Hoffmann V, Rivera J, Marincola FM, Nakamura A, Sartorelli V, Kanno Y, Gattinoni L, Muto A, Igarashi K, O'Shea JJ, Restifo NP.
Nature 2013 498:506-10.