Abstract

Dr Gould has worked in the field of antigen presentation by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules for the past 25 years, initially at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology in Oxford, and since 1996 at Imperial College London, St Mary’s campus.

Current research focusses on exploiting the special properties of single chain MHC class I molecules, in which the three normally separate components of presented peptide, beta2-microglobulin and class I heavy chain are covalently joined together via flexible linker sequences. This type of construct allows manipulation of class I molecules for various purposes, and in collaboration Dr Gould has used single chain MHC class I molecules to investigate the delivery of signals to CD8 + T lymphocytes and natural killer cells.

The properties of single chain MHC class I molecules and recent research data will be presented.