Christopher Love, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemical Engineering – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gene expression modules associated with general T cell activation are more associated with clinical responses to OIT than specific subsets of T cells or their modulation during treatment
Chris Love is an associate member of the Broad Institute and an associate member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. The Love Laboratory at MIT aims to advance science and technologies to reach patients on a global scale. Some successes of his lab include; single-cell analysis, metastatic cancer sequencing, and on-demand biomanufacturing. His research interests include; micro/nanofabrication and surface chemistries, cellular immunology and infectious diseases, immunotherapy/vaccines, and clinical diagnostics.
Christopher Love’s Laboratory at MIT is involved in research with FASI. Their research with FASI focuses on single-cell profiling of T cells from peanut-allergic patients and EoE subjects. Their research has found that there are distinct clonally related subsets of cells with food allergy-associated T cell phenotypes. They have observed that gene expression modules associated with general T cell activation are more associated with clinical responses to OIT than specific subsets of T cells or their modulation during treatment. They have also found by pathway analysis that the Th2 cells in EoE have an upregulation of genes related to eicosanoid synthesis, suggesting that production of the eosinophil chemoattractant prostaglandin-D2 is a feature of Th2 cells in EoE. Gene signatures in both mast cells and eosinophils also suggest a positive feedback loop among these cell types that maintains the proinflammatory environment. The five-year objectives of this laboratory include two aims; characterization of peanut-reactive T cells, and cellular network mapping in EoE.
Featured Publications:
Ruiter B, Smith NP, Monian B, Tu AA, Fleming E, Virkud YV, Patil SU, Whittaker CA, Love JC, Shreffler WG. Expansion of the CD4+ effector T-cell repertoire characterizes peanut-allergic patients with heightened clinical sensitivity. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2020 Jan;145(1):270-282. PMID: 31654649
Tu AA, Gierahn TM, Monian B, Morgan DM, Mehta NK, Ruiter B, Shreffler WG, Shalek AK, Love JC. TCR sequencing paired with massively parallel 3′ RNA-seq reveals clonotypic T cell signatures. Nat Immunol. 2019 Dec;20(12):1692-1699. PMID: 31745340
Patil SU, Ogunniyi AO, Calatroni A, Tadigotla VR, Ruiter B, Ma A, Moon J, Love JC, Shreffler WG. Peanut oral immunotherapy transiently expands circulating Ara h 2-specific B cells with a homologous repertoire in unrelated subjects. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2015 Jul;136(1):125-134.e12. PMID: 25985925