Immune Deployment Project

The project aims to define the immunological traits whose variation impacts the predisposition to complex diseases and immunosenescence. This is being accomplished by genome wide association studies using ultra-high definition polychromatic flow cytometry of circulating cells The project aims to define the immunological traits whose variation impacts the predisposition to complex diseases and immunosenescence.

This is being accomplished by genome wide association studies using ultra-high definition polychromatic flow cytometry of circulating cells    combined with ultra-deep genetic characterization in thousands of SardiNIA volunteers. Those variants that are found to regulate the levels of cells or their surface marker expression are then systematically searched in public/internal repositories for coincident associations with autoimmunity or clinical features of immunosenescence.

The project allows profiling of >200 actual counted cell types belonging to both innate and adaptive branches of the immune system. We demonstrated for the first time that the immune cell levels are under strong genetic control with some variants contributing also to autoimmune disease risk.

By virtue of the Horizon2020 ImmunoAgeing Project which we are coordinating, this work will be further expanded with a special emphasis on immunosenescence.