David Finlay

Background

About David Finlay

Research Interests: Our immune system is important for our health protecting us from infection/cancer, but inappropriate immune responses cause us harm. Diverse diseases could be treated through therapeutic manipulation of our immune systems. My research group wants to understand how to control immune cells and is now revealing the importance of cellular metabolism. Our research shows that the cellular fuels available to immune cells and the ways that these fuels are used have a big impact on their function. We are revealing novel strategies to modulate immune cell function through targeting cellular metabolism and new therapeutic opportunities are being explored. Specifically, our data show that the metabolic regulators mTORC1, cMyc and Srebp are key regulators of immune cell metabolism and function in Natural Killer (NK) cells. In contrast to lymphocytes, mTORC1 and glycolytic metabolism inhibits the function of Dendritic Cells (DC); starving DC of glucose results in increased proinflammatory outputs and enhanced DC-induced T cell responses. Our work is further characterising the molecular links between cellular metabolism and immune cell function. Ongoing projects include-Investigating nutrients as key determinants of DC-induced CD8 T cell responses -Characterising metabolic networks in activated NK cells and how they facilitate NK cell immune function.