IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v462y2009i7272d10.1038_nature08604.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Materials engineering for immunomodulation

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey A. Hubbell

    (Institute of Bioengineering École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
    Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

  • Susan N. Thomas

    (Institute of Bioengineering École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

  • Melody A. Swartz

    (Institute of Bioengineering École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
    Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

Abstract

The engineering of materials that can modulate the immune system is an emerging field that is developing alongside immunology. For therapeutic ends such as vaccine development, materials are now being engineered to deliver antigens through specific intracellular pathways, allowing better control of the way in which antigens are presented to one of the key types of immune cell, T cells. Materials are also being designed as adjuvants, to mimic specific 'danger' signals in order to manipulate the resultant cytokine environment, which influences how antigens are interpreted by T cells. In addition to offering the potential for medical advances, immunomodulatory materials can form well-defined model systems, helping to provide new insight into basic immunobiology.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey A. Hubbell & Susan N. Thomas & Melody A. Swartz, 2009. "Materials engineering for immunomodulation," Nature, Nature, vol. 462(7272), pages 449-460, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:462:y:2009:i:7272:d:10.1038_nature08604
    DOI: 10.1038/nature08604
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08604
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature08604?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:462:y:2009:i:7272:d:10.1038_nature08604. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.