MI2025 – Sho Yamasaki

Title:
Clonotypic Tracing of Human T cells During Infection

Abstract:
Cellular and humoral responses constitute fundamental elements of adaptive immunity to achieve successful protection against infection. In contrast to antibody-based immunity, T cell-mediated immune responses has not been fully characterized on a clonotype resolution. By establishing a multi-layered analytical platform, we identified dominant clonotypes and epitopes of pathogen-reactive T cells which were associated with protection and immunological memories. These approaches also led us to identify a novel pathogen-specific unconventional T cell subset shared across humans. In this symposium, I would like to share and discuss our insights obtained from chronologicalclonological analysis of human T cell responses during infection.

Biography:
Sho Yamasaki is a Professor and Head of the Division of Molecular Immunology at RIMD/IFReC, a Director of CiDER, and Deputy Director of IFReC at The University of Osaka. He graduated with a master’s degree from Kyoto University in 1993 and began his immunology research career at Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (1993–1999). In 1999, he earned his PhD from Kyoto University for his research on T cell antigen receptor signaling under the supervision of Makio Iwashima. Following his PhD, he worked with Takashi Saito at Chiba University and RIKEN RCAI, focusing on immune receptor signal transduction. In 2009, he established the Molecular Immunology Laboratory at Kyushu University, where he served as Professor until 2017. He assumed his current position at Osaka University in 2017. His research focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms governing the recognition of internal and external insults via ITAM-coupled immune receptors, such as C-type lectin receptors and innate-type T cell receptors. Additionally, his laboratory is developing a platform for analyzing human T cell clonotypes specific to various pathogens.