On October 21, 2019, Professor James Di Santo with the Institut Pasteur visited SKLRD at the invitation of Professor Jiabin Mo. He made a fascinating report titled “Innate Lymphoid Cell (ILC) Differentiation from a T cell Perspective”.

Discovered a few years ago, ILCs are a category of natural lymphocytes independent from NK cells, the number of which is small in a healthy body, but increases in case of an inflammation or other diseases. The types, phylogenetic path and functions of ILCs are hot research topics in immunology today. Professor Di Santo first introduced the discovery and current classification of ILCs, and then elaborated the phylogenetic path of ILC 1, ILC 2 and ILC 3. He pointed out that the understanding of ILCs is a continuously evolving process. He further shared the important findings of his laboratory in ILCs and specially introduced the human ILC precursor published in CELL. As revealed by Professor Di Santo, c-Kit+ ILCs were taken for ILC3, but his laboratory found that only c-Kit+ ILCs of NKp44+ are characteristic of the functions of ILCs and can develop into various ILCs, and are thus direct precursor cells of ILCs. Furthermore, his research findings indicate that ILCs in the tissues are induced by inflammations and other conditions, which are similar to T cells divided into multiple subgroups.

The report delivered by Professor Di Santo has expanded our understanding of ILCs and provided a new idea for further research. At the end of the report, the teachers and students raised questions, creating an animated exchange atmosphere.