Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) provides a paradigm for how a complex viral pathogen persists and evades immune responses. Our programme of research seeks to addressed a number of important questions concerning the immunobiology of HCMV. With a particular focus on the generation, maintanance and funtion of memory CD8+ T cells and the immune evasion mechanism employed by the virus to modulate Natural Killer cell function.
Our longitudinal study of primary HCMV infection has shown that T cell receptor affinity appears crucial for the selection of T cells into long-term memory from the initial highly polyclonal T cell response. This process is not stochastic, as in many murine models, and is remarkably rapid, occurring over weeks not years. Selected T cell clones are very long lived – possibly retained for life.
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