Melanie Dunstan

I joined Professor Holm Uhlig’s group and the Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory (Professor John Todd and Professor Linda Wicker) in 2017 as an Oxford-Bristol Myers Squibb (formerly Celgene) Fellow. My research is focused on single-cell analysis of gut-resident T cells in health and disease.

Using the BD Rhapsody™ and BD™ AbSeq platform, we have simultaneously quantified the expression of 405 genes at the mRNA level and 79 genes at the protein level in CD45⁺ cells isolated from the blood (n=61,000) and small intestine (n=92,000) of 15 paediatric patients with either type 1 Diabetes and coeliac disease (n=4); coeliac disease alone (n=6); or with no disease pathology (n=5).

This study has identified several putative disease-associated cell populations. I am currently working on the functional characterisation and validation of these novel populations.