Programme
Click here for a programme.
The scientific committee consisted of Dr Becca Asquith, Imperial College London, Dr Jose Borghans, University Medical Center Utrecht, Dr Vitaly Ganusov, University of Utrecht, Dr Derek Macallan, St George’s, University of London

Presentations (listed in alphabetical order of surname, all are in pdf format)

Becca Acquith - Water v Glucose: Why do they give different rates?

Charles Bangham - Lymphocyte kinetics in HTLV-1 infection

Peter Beverley - Lymphocyte lifespan – why does it matter?

Jose Borghans - Estimating lymphocyte turnover by stable isotope labeling

Robert Busch - Probing cellular homeostasis in vivousing heavy water labelling of DNA

Francesca Di Rosa - Kinetics of in vivo proliferation and death of memory and naive CD8 T cells: parameter estimation based on BrdU incorporation in spleen, lymph nodes and bone marrow
The results of this paper are published in the Journal of Immunology, click here for the publication.

Vitaly Ganusov - Measuring lymphocyte turnover using BrdU: what is the correct model?

Joseph Kovacs - Studies of Lymphocyte Kinetics in HIV Infection

Kristin Ladell - Central Memory CD8+T Cells Appear to Have a Shorter Lifespan and Reduced Abundance As a Function of HIV Disease Progression

Ben Seddon - Modeling homeostatic T cells responses

Veronique Thomas-Vaslin - Modeling homeostatic T cells responses

Overall aims

The major goals of the meeting were:

• firstly, to discuss the issues related to measuring and modelling lymphocyte turnover in health and disease
• secondly, to seek consensus for approaches to future studies which might investigate the impact of various interventions (such as therapies) on turnover of lymphocytes in humans
• thirdly, to identify and promote further areas for collaborative research between the groups involved in this important area.

This text was used for background information for the event.

Maintaining appropriate numbers and subpopulations of lymphocytes, lymphocyte homeostasis, is a fundamental requirement for good health. Dysregulation of lymphocyte populations is pivotal to the pathology and progression of a diverse range of pathologies including leukaemia and AIDS. This meeting seeks to bring together, for the first time, scientists involved in studying the in vivo kinetics of human lymphocytes for a workshop to share concepts, discuss methodologies and explore future areas for research. The workshop will be of interest to both theoreticians and experimentalists.

The last ten years have witnessed major advances in our ability to measure human lymphocyte kinetics and thus understand homeostasis. These advances have largely resulted from the introduction of in vivo labelling techniques, using non-radioactive isotope tracers, alongside the development of new interpretive mathematical models. Such advances have contributed to our understanding of the dynamics of memory and naïve T-cells in health. Additionally, these advances have enable us to address questions about the dynamics of viral infections (HIV, HTLV-I, EBV) and other pathologies such as ageing and leukaemia. Despite these advances, major gaps exist in our understanding of how best to investigate such quantitative aspects of human immunology. Specifically, differences exist between different labelling approaches and between different interpretive models of lymphocyte kinetics. To date, there has not been a forum dedicated to addressing these issues.

This meeting will bring together scientists and clinicians involved in studying the in vivo kinetics of human lymphocytes. We plan to involve scientists with expertise in the area of in vivo measurement of lymphocyte proliferation and death, those experienced in modelling T cell dynamics, and those with expertise in HIV and other infectious diseases of humans.

For queries about this event, please contact Mike Head at the IDRN, mhead@idrn.org