Welcome to the Gumperz Lab!
Our Focus
Our central focus is on understanding the biology of human innate T lymphocytes, so as to develop cellular immunotherapies using these unique immune cells.
Innate T lymphocytes include invariant Natural Killer T cells (iNKT cells), Mucosal Associated Invariant T cells (MAIT cells), and γδ T cells. These cells perform a variety of powerful functions in the immune system, and what distinguishes them from other types of T lymphocytes is that they are essentially identical in each of us and they carry out their functions through highly conserved pathways. As a result, they can be transplanted between unrelated individuals without requiring special tissue-matching. This makes them ideally suited for use as cellular immunotherapies.
Our Vision
Our vision is to develop immunotherapies that use specific types of innate T lymphocytes to produce particular outcomes in patients, ranging from fighting cancer and viral infections, to silencing over-active immune responses that lead to autoimmunity and immunopathology.
As we pursue our research, we aim to learn not just from our own experiments, but also from each other. We value an inclusive environment that incorporates each of our perspectives and encourages each of us to be inquisitive.