The immune system must be able to distinguish between self and non-self in order to both effectively fight infection, and prevent autoimmune diseases. The T cells of the vertebrate immune system learn to maintain this balance during their development in the thymus.

We study how the organisation of the thymus and its cells provide an effective education system for T cells. We are particularly interested how the interactions of developing T cells and thymic epithelial cells lead to tolerance induction and generation of diversity in the immune system.

The Meyer Lab seeks to answer these questions by combining genomics, quantitative genetics and in silico thymic selection models.

Our current research focuses on understanding the regulation of promiscuous gene expression in the human and mouse thymus, determining the genetic and epigenetic drivers of thymocyte development and differentiation and developing a comprehensive model of central tolerance induction.