Professor Kingston Mills

Kingston Mills is Professor of Experimental Immunology, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). He is Head of The Centre for the Study of Immunology at Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute and Theme Champion for Immunology, Inflammation and Infection at TCD. He is a graduate of TCD and trained at as a Postdoctoral Fellow at University College London and the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, before joining the Scientific Staff of NIBSC, Herts, UK. He returned to Ireland in 1993 to take up an academic position at National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He was appointed to a Personal Chair at Trinity College Dublin in 2001 and was Head of the School of Biochemistry and Immunology from 2008-2011. He heads an active research team focusing on T cells in infection, autoimmunity and cancer. He is co-founder of Opsona Therapeutics and TriMod Therapeutics, biotech companies focusing on the development of immunotherapeutics for inflammatory diseases and cancer.

  ACELLULAR PERTUSSIS-VACCINE   ACTIVATION PATHWAY   ANTIGEN   Autoimmune Diseases (Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis)   BACTERIAL   BACTERIAL INFECTION   BACTERIAL LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE   BACTERIAL TOXINS   BIODEGRADABLE MICROPARTICLE   BLOOD MONONUCLEAR-CELLS   BORDETELLA PERTUSSIS   CD4+ T CELLS   CELL-MEDIATED-IMMUNITY   CHOLERA-TOXIN   CYTOKINE PRODUCTION   CYTOKINES   DEMYELINATION   ENDOTOXIN   EXPERIMENTAL AUTOIMMUNE ENCEPHALOMYELITIS   FILAMENTOUS HEMAGGLUTININ   GROWTH-FACTOR-BETA   HOST-DEFENSE   HUMAN DENDRITIC CELLS   HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS   IL-1   IL-1 RECEPTOR   IL-1/MAP KINASES   IL-10   IL-12   IL-4   IMMUNE-RESPONSES   IMMUNOSUPPRESSION   Immunotherapies for Cancer   Infectious Diseases   INFLAMMATION   INTERFERON-GAMMA   INTERLEUKIN-1   INTERLEUKIN-1 BETA   INTERLEUKIN-1 RECEPTOR ANTAGONIST   INTERLEUKIN-1 RECEPTORS   INTERLEUKIN-1-BETA   INTERLEUKIN-1-BETA MESSENGER-RNA   INTERLEUKIN-2   LEUKOCYTE ADHESION MOLECULES   LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE   MACROPHAGES   MAP KINASE   MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES   MONOCYTE   MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS   MURINE MACROPHAGES   MYELIN BASIC-PROTEIN   NF-KAPPA-B   NITRIC-OXIDE   PHOSPHORYLATION   PROTEINS   SEIZURE   SIGNAL-TRANSDUCTION   SIGNAL-TRANSDUCTION PATHWAYS   SURFACE PROTEIN   T LYMPHOCYTES   T-CELL ACTIVATION   T-CELLS   TH1 CELL   TH1 CELLS   T-LYMPHOCYTE ACTIVATION   TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR   VACCINATION   Vaccines   VIRAL-INFECTIONS

A major interest of my research is to understand the effector immune responses that protect us against infection and cancer and how, when uncontrolled this can lead to autoimmune diseases. I am particularly interested the factors that affect the induction, of the distinct subpopulations of CD4+ T cells, termed Th1, Th2 and T regulatory (Treg) and Th17 cells, and the role of innate immune system, in particular dendritic cells, in directing T cell responses. The work has direct application to the development of new or improved vaccines and includes studies on Bordetella pertussis, Fasciola hepatica, influenza virus and hepatitis C virus. In the last number of years my group has focused on immune regulation and immune modulation by pathogens. This has been made possible through PI and Strategic research cluster (SRC) awards from Science Foundation Ireland. The aims are to examine the role of pathogen-derived molecules in modulating immune responses, with particular reference to the induction, regulation and function of T cell subtypes and the induction and control of inflammatory responses. Our hypothesis is that the study of immunomodulation by microbial pathogens is an ideal approach to understand mechanisms of protective immunity and immunoregulation in vivo and will allow the identification and characterization of novel immunomodulatory molecules with potential as therapies for immune mediated diseases. We have identified molecules capable of specifically suppressing or enhancing immune response that regulate or mediate certain human diseases. The application of this research is the development of new or improved vaccines against infectious diseases, active immunotherapeutics against cancer and anti-inflammatory therapeutics against autoimmune diseases. A recent SFI PI award on 'the role of regulatory T cell control of pathogenic and effector T cells and their manipulation as potential therapies for human disease' is focused on the interface between innate and adaptive immunity, specifically how we can manipulate dendritic cells to selectively alter the balance of regulatory (Treg) versus effector (Th1 or Th2) or pathogenic (Th17). Our aim is to design new approaches to treat autoimmunity by enhancing induction of Treg which suppress Th17 cells and to develop new infectious diseases vaccines and cancer immunotherapeutics by enhancing induction of Th1 and Th2 cells, while inhibiting Treg cells.