Dr. Robert Barrett joined the Board of Governors Gene Therapy Research Institute as a postdoctoral researcher in May 2007. Dr. Barrett obtained his doctorate in University College Cork in Ireland where he studied the effects of astroglia from different brain regions on the survival of dopaminergic neurons both in vivo and in vitro. The current aim of Dr. Barrett's research in the Gene Therapy Research Institute is to understand the function of the immunological synapse, a structure formed between cytotoxic T-cells and virally infected cells, in the brain in vivo.
Previous work in the Gene Therapy Research Institute demonstrated for the first time the actual presence of the so far elusive immunological synapse in vivo. However, the precise role of these immune synapses in the brain remains a mystery. The aim of Dr. Barrett's research is to assess the functional role and the physiological implications of the formation of these synapses, both to virally infected cells and also to target cancer cells within the central nervous system.
This will be achieved by using a genetically engineered adenovirus vector to establish if one of the effector molecules released by cytotoxic T-cells, i.e., interferon-gamma, is secreted by T-cells in a polarized fashion at the level of the synapse and subsequently taken up by virally infected cells or cancerous target cells. Furthermore, specially designed viruses will be used to infect specific types of brain cells and the effect of formation of immunological synapses on the different cell types will be examined. The ultimate aim of this research is to add to the understanding of the immune system of the brain. Such findings will have many applications in cancer therapeutics and viral infections which affect the central nervous system such as HIV.
