Thomas Dennison

MSc, MA (Cantab)

PhD Student (co-supervised with Josquin Nys, MedImmune)

E-mail: twd25@cam.ac.uk

 

Research interest

The research theme of our lab is the intestinal epithelium in health and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), with my particular focus being the interaction between the epithelium and the local immune system. This involves generating intestinal epithelial organoids (IEOs), co-culturing them with immune cells and investigating their interactions using flow cytometry and live imaging (2 photon microscopy). We are currently working towards developing knock-out and overexpressing IEO lines, using the CRSPR/Cas9 and PiggyBac systems, which we plan to introduce into our co-culture system.

 Research Project

“Investigating intestinal epithelial innate immunity in health and IBD using human organoid culture systems”

Collaborators

Dr. Menna Clatworthy

Key words/Topics

Epigenetics, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Paediatrics, DNA methylation, Mucosal immunology, Intestinal innate immunity.

Key Publications

Berry MR, Mathews RJ, Ferdinand JR, Jing C, Loudon KW, Wlodek E, Dennison TW, Kuper C, Neuhofer W, Clatworthy MR. Renal Sodium Gradient Orchestrates a Dynamic Antibacterial Defense Zone. Cell. 2017;170(5):860-74.