About Us
T cells are a critical part of the immune system. Their role is to patrol the blood and tissues in order to detect and eliminate virus-infected and cancer cells. In the Hudson lab, we seek to understand T cell biology and improve their function, with the goal of developing new therapies against infections, autoimmunity, and cancer.
The Hudson lab is located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. We are part of Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Our Research
T cells are responsible for destroying tumors and cells infected with intracellular pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. Unfortunately T cell responses are not always optimal, leading to chronic infections and the growth of tumors.
Our research focuses on understanding the causes of T cell dysfunction in order to develop new immunotherapies for cancer and other diseases.
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T cell exhaustion
“Exhaustion” is the process by which T cells become dysfunctional and fail to control tumors and infections. By understanding the biology of T cell exhaustion, we can identify new targets and strategies to improve T cell function. Our research focuses on identifying signals that inhibit T cell function and can be targeted for new immunotherapies.
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Novel immunotherapies
Immunotherapies – modification of the immune system to treat diseases – have revolutionized the treatment of cancer. Unfortunately, not all patients respond to current immunotherapies. We seek to identify new strategies and drugs to improve T cell responses in patients with cancer and infectious disease.
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Immunology method development and application
In recent years, new tools have emerged that permit incredible and detailed study of biological systems. We develop, refine, and apply these methods to immunological questions, allowing unprecedented insight into T cell development and function.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of:
Latest News
May 19, 2023
Exploring the immune effects of radiation in cancer
New Hudson Lab research was published today in Cell Reports Medicine!
In this report, we analyzed two brain tumors from the same patient – one tumor had received radiation, and the other was untreated. We performed advanced sequencing experiments to analyze gene and protein expression on more than 45,000 single cells from the two tumors and the patient’s blood immune cells. Because the two tumors are from the same patient, we could compare T cell receptor sequences – which are barcodes that track antigen-specific cells within a person – between the two samples.
Our results show that radiation is associated with dramatic immune changes in the tumor microenvironment. Despite similar mutational profiles between the untreated and irradiated samples, tumor-enriched T cells are nearly entirely depleted following radiation. These tumor-specific cells are instead replaced by T cells from the circulation, which are unlikely to contribute to tumor-specific immunity. Radiation also caused a depletion of tumor-associated macrophages and an influx of pro-inflammatory monocytes from the circulation. These findings indicate that radiation may deplete beneficial cells that contribute to anti-tumor immunity.
Read the full paper here.
October 11, 2022
Research presentation at 10x Genomics Spatial Biology Symposium
We recently presented our work on spatial T cell receptor sequencing at the 10x Genomics Spatial Biology Symposium in Boston! You can check out the recording on demand here.
October 06, 2022
Perspective article published in Cancer Cell
We have a new publication in Cancer Cell! In this perspective article, we discuss the role of various -omics technologies in studying T cells within the tumor microenvironment. In particular, we focus on the opportunities these techniques present to deepen our understanding of T cell biology and also describe the challenges that arise in the interpretation and analysis of these experiments.