Dr Carrie Willcox

Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy
Senior Research Fellow

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 4089
Email
c.r.willcox@bham.ac.uk
Address
Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy
Robert Aiken Institute for Clinical Research
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Carrie Willcox is a molecular immunologist with a strong interest in antigen recognition by unconventional lymphocytes, and wide experience in molecular and cellular techniques.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Immunology 2002, University of London
  • MSc in Immunology 1998, Yale University
  • BA in Biology 1997, Northwestern University

Biography

Carrie has focussed on understanding unconventional T cell recognition for most of her career, and completed her PhD training in Professor Adrian Hayday’s laboratory at King’s College London.

Although she has worked on Natural Killer and Natural Killer T cells, much of her research has been focussed on understanding gamma delta T cell recognition, an area she works on with Prof Ben Willcox. A particular emphasis is on understanding the core immunobiology underlying human gamma delta T cell function, and characterising ligands recognised by the gamma delta T cell receptor.

Teaching

  • MBChB - Tutor for year 2 Cancer: Causes to Cure
  • MRes - Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Module

Postgraduate supervision

In recent years, Carrie has supervised several MSc and PhD students in the field of antigen recognition requirements of gamma delta T cells.

If you are interesting in studying any of these subject areas please contact Dr Carrie Willcox directly, or for any general doctoral research enquiries, please email mds-gradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

For a full list of available Doctoral Research opportunities, please visit our Doctoral Research programme listings.

Research

Carrie is currently funded by Prof Ben Willcox’s Wellcome Trust Award focussing on human gamma delta (γδ) T cells. Through analysis of human γδ T cell receptor (TCR) repertoires, the group has examined two classes of adaptive-like γδ T cells in humans: Vd2neg T cells and Vg9negVd2+ T cells. These subsets express diverse TCRs, and ongoing studies focus on identifying adaptive ligands for this subset. Previously, in collaboration with Dr. Julie Dechanet-Merville (Bordeaux), Carrie identified endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) as a ligand for a γδ T cell clone that expanded in a patient with acute CMV infection. EPCR remains a key example of a ligand for an adaptive-like γδ T cell clone.

In parallel, it has recently become clear that some human γδ T cell populations are more innate-like, akin to iNKT or MAIT cells in the αβ T cell compartment. Butyrophilin (BTN) family molecules seem to be required for regulation of these innate-like γδ T cells, including BTN3A1 for the human Vg9Vd2+ T cell subset, and BTNL3 for the intestinal Vg4+ compartment. We have recently shown that BTNL3 binds directly to human Vg4+ TCRs in a superantigen-like manner, distinct from clonally-restricted antigen. Future studies are aimed at understanding how BTN-like molecules influence other subsets of human and mouse γδ T cells.

In addition, Carrie is interested in NKG2D ligand recognition, collaborating with Professor Moss’ group on this work in this area. She combines cellular assays with BIAcore binding analyses to understand how the strength of NKG2D-ligand interactions influences anti-tumour immunity.

Other activities

  • Member of the British Society for Immunology
  • Member of the Cancer Immunotherapy and Immunology Centre Advisory Board
  • Reviewer for several Journals

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Syrimi, E, Khan, N, Murray, P, Willcox, C, Haigh, T, Willcox, B, Masand, N, Bowen, C, Dimakou, DB, Zuo, J, Barone, SM, Irish, JM, Kearns, P & Taylor, GS 2024, '', iScience.

Karunakaran, MM, Subramanian, H, Jin, Y, Mohammed, F, Kimmel, B, Juraske, C, Starick, L, N枚hren, A, L盲nder, N, Willcox, CR, Singh, R, Schamel, WW, Nikolaev, VO, Kunzmann, V, Wiemer, AJ, Willcox, BE & Herrmann, T 2023, '', Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 7617 .

Willcox, CR, Salim, M, Begley, CR, Karunakaran, MM, Easton, EJ, von Klopotek, C, Berwick, KA, Herrmann, T, Mohammed, F, Jeeves, M & Willcox, BE 2023, '', Cell Reports, vol. 42, no. 4, 112321.

McMurray, J, von Borstel, A, Taher, T, Syrimi, E, Taylor, G, Sharif, M, Rossjohn, J, Remmerswaal, E, Bemelman, F, Vieira Braga, FA, Chen, X, Teichmann, SA, Mohammed, F, Berry, A, Lyke, K, Williamson, K, Stubbington, M, Davey, M, Willcox, C & Willcox, B 2022, '', Cell Reports, vol. 39, no. 8, 110858.

Faustini, S, Jossi, S, Perez-Toledo, M, Shields, A, Allen, JD, Watanabe, Y, Newby, ML, Cook, A, Willcox, C, Salim, M, Goodall, M, Heaney, J, Marcial Juarez, E, Morley, G, Torlinska, B, Wraith, D, Veenith, T, Harding, S, Jolles, S, Mark, PJ, Plant, T, Huissoon, A, O鈥橲hea, MK, Willcox, B, Drayson, M, Crispin, M, Cunningham, A & Richter, A 2021, '', Immunology, vol. 164, no. 1, pp. 135-147.

Karunakaran, MM, Willcox, CR, Salim, M, Paletta, D, Fichtner, AS, Noll, A, Starick, L, N枚hren, A, Begley, CR, Berwick, KA, Chaleil, RAG, Pitard, V, D茅chanet-merville, J, Bates, PA, Kimmel, B, Knowles, TJ, Kunzmann, V, Walter, L, Jeeves, M, Mohammed, F, Willcox, BE & Herrmann, T 2020, '', Immunity, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 487-498.e6.

Faustini, SE, Jossi, SE, Perez-Toledo, M, Shields, A, Allen, JD, Watanabe, Y, Newby, ML, Cook, A, Willcox, CR, Salim, M, Goodall, M, Heaney, JL, Marcial-Juarez, E, Morley, GL, Torlinska, B, Wraith, DC, Veenith, T, Harding, S, Jolles, S, Mark, PJ, Plant, T, Huissoon, A, O'Shea, MK, Willcox, BE, Drayson, MT, Crispin, M, Cunningham, AF & Richter, AG 2020, '', medRxiv.

Willcox, CR, Mohammed, F & Willcox, BE 2020, '', Immunological Reviews, vol. 298, no. 1, pp. 25-46.

Willcox, BE, Mohammed, F & Willcox, CR 2020, '', Trends in Biochemical Sciences, vol. 45, no. 7, pp. 551-553.

Willcox, C, Vantourout, P, Salim, M, Zlatareva, I, Melandri, D, Zanardo, L, George, R, Kjaer, S, Jeeves, M, Mohammed, F, Hayday, AC & Willcox, B 2019, '', Immunity, vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 813-825.e4.

Hunter, S, Willcox, C, Davey, M, Kasatskaya, SA, Jeffery, H, Chudakov, D, Oo, Y & Willcox, B 2018, '', Journal of Hepatology, vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 654-665.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Willcox, B & Willcox, C 2024, . in M Barisa (ed.), 纬未 T Cell Cancer Immunotherapy: Evidence-Based Perspectives for Clinical Translation. 1 edn, Elsevier, pp. 1-33.

Letter

Perez-Toledo, M, Faustini, SE, Jossi, SE, Shields, AM, Marcial鈥怞uarez, E, Kanthimathinathan, HK, Allen, JD, Watanabe, Y, Goodall, M, Willcox, BE, Willcox, CR, Salim, M, Wraith, DC, Veenith, TV, Syrimi, E, Drayson, MT, Jyothish, D, Al鈥怉badi, E, Chikermane, A, Welch, SB, Masilamani, K, Hackett, S, Crispin, M, Scholefield, BR, Cunningham, AF & Richter, AG 2021, '', Pediatric allergy and immunology, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 1125-1129.

Review article

Willcox, C, Davey, M & Willcox, B 2018, '', Frontiers in immunology, vol. 9, 1501.

Davey, M, Willcox, C, Baker, A, Hunter, S & Willcox, B 2018, '', Trends in Immunology, vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 446-459.