Australian and U.S. researchers are teaming up to study how genetics governs immune cell “fate timers,” aiming to explain why some people inherit complex immune diseases from otherwise healthy parents.
The collaboration between Australia’s Snow Center for Immune Health and Northeastern University in the United States will combine immune and genetic data to predict disorder risks at the population level, according to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
Scientists plan to scale the Snow Center’s Cyton2 cell timer model, which tracks how immune cells make critical decisions, offering new insights into B and T cell behavior. The findings suggest immune disorders may result from many small genetic effects that individually are harmless but collectively increase risk.
“This collaboration represents an exciting step toward transforming how we understand, diagnose, and ultimately prevent immune disease,” said Professor Phil Hodgkin, scientific program lead at the Snow Center.