Omer Dushek

path.ox.ac.ukRewiring T cell co-receptors to improve the safety of cancer immunotherapy - Dunn SchoolA new study from the Dushek and van der Merwe labs demonstrates a novel strategy to reduce dangerous off-target effects in engineered T cell therapies.

8 Jan 2025

Our new work on optimising CAR-T cell sensitivity is now on bioRxiv! Optimising CAR-T cell sensitivity by engineering matched extracellular sizes between CAR/antigen and CD2/CD58 adhesion complexes biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Omer Dushek reposted

Jun Allard

@allardlab.bsky.social

21 Jan

Review article with Omer Dushek @tcell.bsky.social on tethered signaling proteins, out now! Tethered bio-molecular reactions can do at least 7 cool things that freely-diffusing reactions do not. Read more here! #IDR #TCells #cytoskeleton www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Omer Dushek reposted

The Dunn School, Oxford

@dunnschool.bsky.social

19 Jan

A new study from the @tcell.bsky.social lab demonstrates a novel strategy to reduce dangerous off-target effects in engineered T cell therapies. Find out more: www.path.ox.ac.uk/news-article...

nature.comGeneration of T cells with reduced off-target cross-reactivities by engineering co-signalling receptors - Nature Biomedical EngineeringThis study shows that T cell cross-reactivity is influenced by the co-signalling molecules CD5, CD8 and CD4, and that cytotoxic T cells with a CD8→CD4 co-receptor switch show reduced cross-reactivity ...

5 Jan

🚀 Our new Publication in Nature Biomedical Engineering!🎉 📄 Title: Generation of T cells with reduced off-target cross-reactivities by engineering co-signalling receptors 🔗 Read the full paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The work was led by our talented student Jose Cabezas Caballero (now a postdoc with Mala Maini) and huge thanks to all the co-authors and collaborators who made this work possible, and to Springer Nature Biomedical Engineering for an efficient review process.

5 Jan

#Immunotherapy #TCells #CancerResearch #BiomedicalEngineering #OpenAccess #NatureBiomedicalEngineering

Our work shows that by modulating co-signalling receptors on T cells (such as switching CD8 for CD4), we can significantly and selectively reduce lower-affinity off-target activation while keeping higher-affinity antitumor target efficacy intact.

5 Jan

This approach offers a universal method to generate highly selective therapeutic T cells for any TCR, potentially improving both the safety and effectiveness of adoptive immunotherapy for a wide range of targets.

In this study, we explore a novel strategy to enhance the safety of T cell immunotherapies. Traditional engineered T cell receptors (TCR-T) can sometimes cross-react with unintended lower-affinity targets, leading to harmful side effects.

embopress.orgMurine T-cell receptor OT-I exhibits imperfect discrimination between foreign and self-antigens | The EMBO JournalimageimageThe OT-I mouse T-cell receptor (TCR) is thought to perfectly discriminate between lower-affinity self- and higher-affinity foreign antigen-MHC complexes. This study shows OT-I TCR to exhibit imperfect discrimination and to be activated ...

Our work accurately measuring the 3D affinity between the OT-I TCR and a large number of foreign and self antigen ligands is now published at EMBO Journal. Murine T-cell receptor OT-I exhibits imperfect discrimination between foreign and self-antigens www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

The EMBO Journal@embojournal.org

Murine T-cell receptor OT-I exhibits imperfect discrimination between foreign and self-antigens Omer Dushek @tcell.bsky.social and colleagues show that 3D solution affinities of the OT-I TCR for foreign and self-antigens predict functional T-cell responses www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

We suggest that T cells 'force-shield' their TCR/pMHC interactions at interfaces to faithfully measure their affinities.

The work was lead by Anna H. with support from many lab members, a fantastic collaboration with Audrey Gerard with support from Wellcome Trust and BBSRC. Thank you to EMBO Journal for a constructive and efficient review process.

The EMBO Journal@embojournal.org

embopress.orgUnraveling T-cell decoding strategy: a step forward | The EMBO JournalEMBO Press is an editorially independent publishing platform for the development of EMBO scientific publications.

With a News & Views by Pierre Bongrand and Philippe Robert Unraveling T-cell decoding strategy: a step forward www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

eventbrite.co.ukeventbrite.co.uk

We show that despite the enormous molecular complexity at T cell interfaces (with target cells), the 3D affinity measured with purified TCR and pMHC in SPR can accurately predict the OT-I T cell response.

Omer Dushek reposted

Omer Dushek reposted

UK NK 2026 in Cardiff. January 9th. Be there. eventbrite.co.uk/e/uk-nk-confer… Hosted by Rich Stanton, Ceri Fielding & Eddie Wang

Omer Dushek reposted

Matthew Freeman

@mjafreeman.bsky.social

22 Sept 2025

I was Chair of @biologists.bsky.social when we started this initiative, the brainwave of the @stevenkelly.bsky.social It was an imaginative idea and I am thrilled to see this landmark Remember: @biologists.bsky.social are the goodies in scientific publishing!

The Company of Biologists@biologists.bsky.social

In our Forest of Biologists we fund the restoration and preservation of ancient woodland and dedicate these trees to our peer reviewers. There are now over 10,000 trees for peer reviews! Thank you to all our peer reviewers. Find out more: forest.biologists.com #PRW2025 @peerreviewweek.bsky.social

Omer Dushek reposted

Jun Allard

@allardlab.bsky.social

8 Sept 2025

We can make the flexibility of a model match the hypothesis being tested -- more flexibility is not always better, if it prohibits rejection of the hypothesis. Here is one simple case involving T cells where it made a difference! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

4 Aug 2025

If you're a postdoc interested in starting your own group, please consider the Dunn School at Oxford, UK. It's a fantastic department and university for molecular immunology and all aspects of immune research!

The Dunn School, Oxford@dunnschool.bsky.social

📣 Applications now open 📣 We are seeking outstanding ECRs looking for a stimulating and supportive environment in which to establish their research group as externally-funded fellows, in any area or cell or molecular biology underlying disease! Please share! www.path.ox.ac.uk/work-with-us...

Omer Dushek reposted

Immunotherapy Advances

@imtadvances.bsky.social

17 July 2025

Temporal control of cytokine production is lost in 2nd-gen CAR-T cells, says Patel et al. This could be key to understanding their efficacy and toxicity in cancer immunotherapy. 🧬 🔗 https://bit.ly/4lOLicw #CancerImmunotherapy

Our new review article led by Jordan Kramer: Platforms for studying cell–cell recognition by immune cells onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

By comparing the advantages and limitations of each platform, we provide a framework to choose the most suitable system to study signal integration in both basic and translational contexts.

Thanks to our funding, collaborators, constructive reviewers, and for the very efficient process at Immunology & Cell Biology!

Our new review article led by Jordan Kramer: Platforms for studying cell–cell recognition by immune cells onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

In contrast, solid surfaces or supported lipid bilayers allow easy manipulation of ligands but lack the biophysical properties of cells, such as softness, a glycocalyx, and/or ligand mobility.

A recently developed CombiCell system enables easy manipulation of ligands while conserving key biophysical properties.

Our new review article led by Jordan Kramer: Platforms for studying cell–cell recognition by immune cells onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We review and compare the available platforms, focusing on T-cell recognition.

Although genetically modified antigen-presenting cells (APCs) offer the most physiological system, manipulating their ligands is difficult and slow.

Our new review article led by Jordan Kramer: Platforms for studying cell–cell recognition by immune cells onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Immune cells interact directly with other cells and make decisions by integrating information from many different receptor–ligand interactions at these cell–cell interfaces.

Since they encounter a huge variety of normal and abnormal cells, they experience many different combinations and concentrations of ligands. Understanding immune responses therefore requires platforms that enable ligands to be easily manipulated.

Omer Dushek reposted

Dimova Lab

@dimovalab.bsky.social

9 May 2025

📢 Registration is open for the Biomembrane Days 2025! 🔗 biomembrane-days-2025.mpikg.mpg.de A top-notch lineup of speakers, 120 posters, 200 scientists. 📜Submit an abstract by July 14 🏆3 Poster prizes ⚠️Limited spots-previous events were fully booked! #BiomembraneDays2025 #Biophysics #CellMembranes

1 Apr 2025

CombiCells allow combinatorial display of cell surface ligands www.nature.com/articles/s41... A new Tools of the Trade article from Nature Reviews Immunology by Sofía Bustamante Eguiguren in our lab highlights the CombiCell platform to combinatorially display and titrate many cell surface ligands

1 Apr 2025

Sofia has been exploiting the platform to study T cell signal integration by co-signalling receptor/ligand interactions.

embopress.orgUsing CombiCells, a platform for titration and combinatorial display of cell surface ligands, to study T-cell antigen sensitivity modulation by accessory receptors | The EMBO JournalimageimageThe inherent difficulty in manipulating cell surface proteins limits our ability to study cell–cell recognition. This work develops a platform for the combinatorial display of cell surface l...

1 Apr 2025

The original manuscript was published in @embojournal.org EMBO Journal last year Using CombiCells, a platform for titration and combinatorial display of cell surface ligands, to study T-cell antigen sensitivity modulation by accessory receptors www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

nature.comMicrobiology and infectious diseasesThis page highlights recent articles on all aspects of bacteriology, mycology, parasitology and virology, covering the biology of pathogens, host-pathogen ...

6 Mar 2025

The molecular reach of antibodies crucially underpins their viral neutralisation capacity Our work on measuring and understanding the role of molecular reach on antibody function is now part of a list of editor's pick manuscripts: www.nature.com/collections/...

Omer Dushek@tcell.bsky.social

Our work led by Anna Huhn is now published! The molecular reach of antibodies crucially underpins their viral neutralisation capacity lnkd.in/epe8YZPm Thank you to the reviewers for constructive feedback!