IMSR Seminar Series: Revealing anti-tumour T cell recruitment and recirculation in vivo to optimise therapeutic intervention

David Withers qualified with a BSc (Hons) in Virology and Microbiology from the University of Warwick in 2000, then a PhD in Immunology at the Institute for Animal Health in conjunction with the University of Bristol. David continued his studies in the laboratory of Dr Peter Lipsky at NIAMS, NIH, Bethesda (2004-2006). He then returned to the UK to study with Professor Peter Lane at the University of Birmingham, cementing his interest in secondary lymphoid tissue environments and how these regulate CD4 T cell responses. In 2011 he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship to establish his own research group at Birmingham, investigating the role of lymphoid tissue inducer cells in controlling T cell responses. In 2016 he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship in Basic Biomedical Science focused on understanding innate lymphoid cell regulation of adaptive immune responses. Experimentally, these studies centre on novel in vivo models to track, target and interrogate T cell responses, exploiting tractable Ag-specific T cell elicited through infection or immunisation. Recently, studies of in vivo T cell trafficking have become focused on fundamental questions regarding anti-tumour immunity, supported by funding through Cancer Research UK and industrial collaborations.

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