Babraham Institute welcomes new group leader, Rahul Roychoudhuri

The Babraham Institute welcomes Dr Rahul Roychoudhuri who joins the Institute this week as a new group leader within the Institute’s lymphocyte signalling and development programme. Rahul joins the Institute from the National Cancer Institute, USA.
 
Rahul’s group focuses on understanding how proteins called transcription factors influence the outcome of immune responses by guiding the differentiation of T cells. T cells coordinate immune function by differentiating into highly specialised cellular lineages that either promote or suppress immune reactions. Whereas effector T cells cause immune activation and can drive clearance of infections and cancer, regulatory T cells keep effector T cells in check, preventing excessive immune reactions. Rahul’s work aims to establish mechanisms that control the induction, function and stability of effector and regulatory T cells and thereby identify targets for a new class of therapies that will powerfully manipulate immune function in patients with autoimmunity, chronic infection and cancer.
 
Rahul said: “I am very excited to be joining the Babraham Institute. My work lies at the intersection of several key research areas in which the Babraham Institute has now attained an international reputation. I feel that the Babraham Institute is one of the few places in the world where I could conduct this research. I hope that in collaboration with other researchers at the Institute, we will be able to gain important insights into how the function of the immune system is coordinated both during health and disease.”
 
Rahul studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Clinical Medicine at King's College London. He undertook his post-doctoral training at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, studying heterogeneity in transcriptional regulation within single immune cells during responses to infection. His later post-doctoral work at the US National Cancer Institute explored how transcription factors control gene expression in lymphocytes to guide the outcome of immune responses.
 
Professor Michael Wakelam, Institute Director, said: “We’re extremely excited to have Rahul join us and on behalf of everyone at the Institute I’d like to offer Rahul and his family a warm welcome. His knowledge of transcription factor-regulated T cell function complements our existing immunology expertise which aims to understand the role of the immune system in concert. It also offers promising opportunities for us to strengthen the contribution our fundamental biological research makes to improving lives.”