Professor Anton Van der Merwe
Professor of Molecular Immunology
About
After qualifying in medicine and completing a PhD at the University of Cape Town I moved to Oxford in 1991 to work at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. My research focuses on working out how white blood cells, such as T cells recognise infected or cancerous cells. Recent advances in this area have resulted in revolutionary new treatments for cancer, such as checkpoint inhibitors and CAR T cells.
I am also interested in the health risks of exposure to radioactivity, especially radioactivity associated with nuclear energy and nuclear waste.
Expertise
- Immunity
- Health effects or risks of radioactivity or radiation
- Immunotherapy of cancer
Selected publications
- The contribution of major histocompatibility complex contacts to the affinity and kinetics of T cell receptor binding
- Multisite phosphorylation modulates the T cell receptor ζ-chain potency but not the switchlike response
- Integrins form an expanding diffusional barrier that coordinates phagocytosis
- Costimulation of IL-2 production through CD28 Is dependent on the size of its ligand