Author
Christophe Benoist
Other affiliations: University of Strasbourg, Joslin Diabetes Center, French Institute of Health and Medical Research ...read more
Bio: Christophe Benoist is an academic researcher from Harvard University. The author has contributed to research in topics: T cell & FOXP3. The author has an hindex of 132, co-authored 470 publications receiving 63181 citations. Previous affiliations of Christophe Benoist include University of Strasbourg & Joslin Diabetes Center.
Papers published on a yearly basis
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TL;DR: Aire-deficient thymic medullary epithelial cells showed a specific reduction in ectopic transcription of genes encoding peripheral antigens, highlighting the importance of thymically imposed “central” tolerance in controlling autoimmunity.
Abstract: Humans expressing a defective form of the transcription factor AIRE (autoimmune regulator) develop multiorgan autoimmune disease. We used aire- deficient mice to test the hypothesis that this transcription factor regulates autoimmunity by promoting the ectopic expression of peripheral tissue- restricted antigens in medullary epithelial cells of the thymus. This hypothesis proved correct. The mutant animals exhibited a defined profile of autoimmune diseases that depended on the absence of aire in stromal cells of the thymus. Aire-deficient thymic medullary epithelial cells showed a specific reduction in ectopic transcription of genes encoding peripheral antigens. These findings highlight the importance of thymically imposed "central" tolerance in controlling autoimmunity.
2,276 citations
TL;DR: Observations suggest that harnessing the anti-inflammatory properties of Treg cells to inhibit elements of the metabolic syndrome may have therapeutic potential.
Abstract: Obesity is accompanied by chronic, low-grade inflammation of adipose tissue, which promotes insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes. These findings raise the question of how fat inflammation can escape the powerful armamentarium of cells and molecules normally responsible for guarding against a runaway immune response. CD4(+) Foxp3(+) T regulatory (T(reg)) cells with a unique phenotype were highly enriched in the abdominal fat of normal mice, but their numbers were strikingly and specifically reduced at this site in insulin-resistant models of obesity. Loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments revealed that these T(reg) cells influenced the inflammatory state of adipose tissue and, thus, insulin resistance. Cytokines differentially synthesized by fat-resident regulatory and conventional T cells directly affected the synthesis of inflammatory mediators and glucose uptake by cultured adipocytes. These observations suggest that harnessing the anti-inflammatory properties of T(reg) cells to inhibit elements of the metabolic syndrome may have therapeutic potential.
1,823 citations
TL;DR: The Immunological Genome Project combines immunology and computational biology laboratories in an effort to establish a complete 'road map' of gene-expression and regulatory networks in all immune cells.
Abstract: nology is an ideal field for the application of systems approaches, with its detailed descriptions of cell types (over 200 immune cell types are defined in the scope of the Immunological Genome Project (ImmGen)), wealth of reagents and easy access to cells. Thanks to the broad and robust approaches allowed by gene-expression microarrays and related techniques, the transcriptome is probably the only ‘-ome’ that can be reliably tackled in its entirety. Generating a complete perspective of gene expression in the immune system
1,497 citations
TL;DR: It is reported that autoimmune arthritis was strongly attenuated in the K/BxN mouse model under germ-free (GF) conditions, accompanied by reductions in serum autoantibody titers, splenic autoantIBody-secreting cells, germinal centers, and the splenic T helper 17 (Th17) cell population.
1,398 citations
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Howard Hughes Medical Institute1, Massachusetts Institute of Technology2, Broad Institute3, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute4, European Bioinformatics Institute5, University of Cambridge6, Harvard University7, Weizmann Institute of Science8, University of Zurich9, Laboratory of Molecular Biology10, Utrecht University11, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne12, University of Pennsylvania13, Heidelberg University14, German Cancer Research Center15, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich16, John Radcliffe Hospital17, Newcastle University18, Stanford University19, University of Oxford20, University of California, San Francisco21, Allen Institute for Brain Science22, Karolinska Institutet23, Royal Institute of Technology24, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai25, University of Cape Town26, University Medical Center Groningen27, Radboud University Nijmegen28, Kettering University29, University of Edinburgh30, Babraham Institute31, New York University32, Netherlands Cancer Institute33, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard34, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston35, Technische Universität München36, Technical University of Denmark37, University of California, Berkeley38, King's College London39, California Institute of Technology40
TL;DR: An open comprehensive reference map of the molecular state of cells in healthy human tissues would propel the systematic study of physiological states, developmental trajectories, regulatory circuitry and interactions of cells, and also provide a framework for understanding cellular dysregulation in human disease.
Abstract: The recent advent of methods for high-throughput single-cell molecular profiling has catalyzed a growing sense in the scientific community that the time is ripe to complete the 150-year-old effort to identify all cell types in the human body. The Human Cell Atlas Project is an international collaborative effort that aims to define all human cell types in terms of distinctive molecular profiles (such as gene expression profiles) and to connect this information with classical cellular descriptions (such as location and morphology). An open comprehensive reference map of the molecular state of cells in healthy human tissues would propel the systematic study of physiological states, developmental trajectories, regulatory circuitry and interactions of cells, and also provide a framework for understanding cellular dysregulation in human disease. Here we describe the idea, its potential utility, early proofs-of-concept, and some design considerations for the Human Cell Atlas, including a commitment to open data, code, and community.
1,391 citations
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TL;DR: Preliminary clinical findings with blockers of additional immune-checkpoint proteins, such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1), indicate broad and diverse opportunities to enhance antitumour immunity with the potential to produce durable clinical responses.
Abstract: Immune checkpoints refer to the plethora of inhibitory pathways that are crucial to maintaining self-tolerance. Tumour cells induce immune checkpoints to evade immunosurveillance. This Review discusses the progress in targeting immune checkpoints, the considerations for combinatorial therapy and the potential for additional immune-checkpoint targets.
10,602 citations
TL;DR: A strategy to "anchor" diverse datasets together, enabling us to integrate single-cell measurements not only across scRNA-seq technologies, but also across different modalities.
7,892 citations
TL;DR: An analytical strategy for integrating scRNA-seq data sets based on common sources of variation is introduced, enabling the identification of shared populations across data sets and downstream comparative analysis.
Abstract: Computational single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) methods have been successfully applied to experiments representing a single condition, technology, or species to discover and define cellular phenotypes. However, identifying subpopulations of cells that are present across multiple data sets remains challenging. Here, we introduce an analytical strategy for integrating scRNA-seq data sets based on common sources of variation, enabling the identification of shared populations across data sets and downstream comparative analysis. We apply this approach, implemented in our R toolkit Seurat (http://satijalab.org/seurat/), to align scRNA-seq data sets of peripheral blood mononuclear cells under resting and stimulated conditions, hematopoietic progenitors sequenced using two profiling technologies, and pancreatic cell 'atlases' generated from human and mouse islets. In each case, we learn distinct or transitional cell states jointly across data sets, while boosting statistical power through integrated analysis. Our approach facilitates general comparisons of scRNA-seq data sets, potentially deepening our understanding of how distinct cell states respond to perturbation, disease, and evolution.
7,741 citations
TL;DR: A series of recombinant genomes which directed expression of the enzyme chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) in mammalian cells provided a uniquely convenient system for monitoring the expression of foreign DNAs in tissue culture cells.
Abstract: We constructed a series of recombinant genomes which directed expression of the enzyme chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) in mammalian cells. The prototype recombinant in this series, pSV2-cat, consisted of the beta-lactamase gene and origin of replication from pBR322 coupled to a simian virus 40 (SV40) early transcription region into which CAT coding sequences were inserted. Readily measured levels of CAT accumulated within 48 h after the introduction of pSV2-cat DNA into African green monkey kidney CV-1 cells. Because endogenous CAT activity is not present in CV-1 or other mammalian cells, and because rapid, sensitive assays for CAT activity are available, these recombinants provided a uniquely convenient system for monitoring the expression of foreign DNAs in tissue culture cells. To demonstrate the usefulness of this system, we constructed derivatives of pSV2-cat from which part or all of the SV40 promoter region was removed. Deletion of one copy of the 72-base-pair repeat sequence in the SV40 promoter caused no significant decrease in CAT synthesis in monkey kidney CV-1 cells; however, an additional deletion of 50 base pairs from the second copy of the repeats reduced CAT synthesis to 11% of its level in the wild type. We also constructed a recombinant, pSV0-cat, in which the entire SV40 promoter region was removed and a unique HindIII site was substituted for the insertion of other promoter sequences.
7,438 citations
TL;DR: The results showed that high concentrations of G418 efficiently yielded L cell and CHO cell transfectants stably producing IL-2 at levels comparable with those previously attained using gene amplification.
4,971 citations