Genome-wide association studies have provided valuable insights into biology underpinning many diseases. Understanding the function in which disease-associated variants function is fundamental to understanding disease pathology and development of novel therapeutics.
Variants associated with immune-mediated diseases are enriched in enhancers and promoters whose activity is upregulated upon CD4+ T-cell activation. Following T-cell activation and costimulation, primary T-cells will be stimulated to proliferate leading to clonal expansion.
In my PhD, I aim to using single-cell technologies to assess the heterogeneity in primary T-cells to gain greater fundamental understanding of the transcriptomic and regulatory mechanisms underpinning T-cell activation.