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NOBEL PRIZE 2026

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NIHNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASESR01

THE IMMUNE SELF-ASSOCIATED STORAGE ORGANELLE (SASO)

Active
Institution
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Principal investigator
Matthew F Krummel
Funding
$581K
Duration
2023–2027
Open portfolio

Moonbase score

Still being scored

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY This study investigates how the body maintains a memory of ‘Self’. When facing foreign organisms and cancer, this self-knowledge is thought to be critical, serving to educate the immune system to limit autoimmunity and conversely license reactivity to things that are ‘Foreign’. The core of the study focuses on a newly-discovered organelle, found within macrophages and some dendritic cells which we call the Self-Associated Storage Organelle or SASO for short. We believe that the SASO is critical to ‘hold’ our self-identity and subsequently educate the rest of our immune system and it appears to come from a stealthy and subtle form of ‘cell nibbling’.Our proposal is unique in applying cutting technologies—lattice-light sheet imaging, vesicle flow, Mass- spectrometry and Electron Microscopy—together with conventional cellular immunoassay methods and genetic screens, to understand how this newly described component of the immune system works as well as how we can harness it to improve health. The resultant discoveries will be formative for designing new ways to boost anti-tumor immunity, to minimize autoimmunity and to broadly regulate which components of our bodies are seen as ‘Self’.

LOADING MOONBASE SCORE

R01NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASESCellular and Molecular Immunology - A Study Section[CMIA]immuneautoimmunityimmunoassayselfeducateorganellestudy investigatesforeign

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