IRT Group | Bienvenidos

IRTGroup Research Lines and Members/Collaborators

IRTGroup - Universidad de Chile

A platform that carries out associative research on Autoimmunity, Antigen discovery and Tolerance recovery

XXXIII Chilean Congress of Rheumatology 2021

The work of the IRTGroup was recently awarded the prize for basic research at the XXXIII Chilean Congress of Rheumatology

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CURRENT RELEVANT RESEARCH at IRTGROUP

Interaction between Vimentin / HLA-DRB1*0401 complex and a CD4+ T-cell antigen receptor associated with rheumatoid arthritis

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Immune Regulation and Tolerance Research Group (IRTGroup)

Twenty-one years have passed since the formation of the Laboratory of Autoimmune and Inflammatory Diseases, currently known as Immune Regulation and Tolerance Research Group (IRTGroup). The IRTGroup is a platform that carries out associative research with the aim to understand the immunological basis responsible for the loss of tolerance in autoimmune diseases. We are intended to develop strategies for tolerance induction with therapeutic potential in autoimmunity, emphasizing the study on tolerogenic dendritic cells, regulatory T and B cells, and cytokine-blocking antibodies.

In addition, we have a commitment with the education, participating in the training of new scientific generations including undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral fellows. Our main strength to transfer the achievements of our basic research into patients’ benefits is supported by a robust and productive interaction with several clinicians, including rheumatologists, hematologists, transplantologists and clinical immunologists.

The IRTGroup is made up of five principal investigators and their research groups, hosted by the Immunology Disciplinary Program of the Biomedical Sciences Institute (ICBM), located at the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Prof. Dr. Juan Carlos Aguillón, jcaguillo@med.uchile.cl
Dr. Diego Catalán, dfcatalan@med.uchile.cl
Dr. Lilian Soto, sotolian@gmail.com
Dr. Octavio Aravena, aravena.octavio@gmail.com
Dr. Katina Schinnerling, katina.schinnerling@gmail.com

Our Publication Our Projects Research Lines

Staff

Meet the members of the IRT group

The IRT group is composed by a multi-disciplinary team, including Principal Investigators, students at different stages of training, and collaboration personnel.

meet the Staff

Publications

Take a glance at our latest publications

Dexamethasone and monophosphoryl lipid A induce a distinctive profile on monocyte-derived dendritic cells through transcriptional modulation of genes associated with essential processes of the immune response

Immunosuppressive mechanisms of regulatory B cells

Projects

Review our current and former grants

In the Immune Regulation and Tolerance Research Group we are developing the following projects, aimed to increase our knowledge in the mechanisms underlying the regulation of the immune system and to develop therapeutic strategies based in the induction in tolerance to treat autoimmune diseases and increase transplantation success.

View Projects

Research Lines

The following sections summarize the main areas being developed by the IRT group.

Identification of immunodominant epitopes in autoimmune diseases.

The aim of this research line is to identify and characterize immunodominant T cell epitopes that elicit immune responses associated to different autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Use of tolerogenic dendritic cells to restore self-tolerance in autoimmunity.

It is now clear that dendritic cells (DCs) can be not only immunogenic but also tolerogenic (TolDCs). In particular, immature and semi-mature DCs have been found to have tolerogenic properties, and to induce regulatory CD4+ T cells, becoming in a promising tool to control T cell-mediated autoimmunity.

Immune modulation by regulatory B cells (Bregs) in autoimmune diseases

Our laboratory is dedicated to unraveling the mechanisms involved in the activation of Bregs in their interaction with their target cells, as well as the study of the alterations that these cells present in patients with autoimmune diseases of the rheumatological field, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic sclerosis.