prof. Tom Taghon (PhD)

The overall goal of T cell team Taghon is to understand the molecular mechanisms that drive T cell development in human. T lymphocytes are vital cells of the immune system and comprise a particular type of blood cells that is generated in the thymus from blood forming hematopoietic stem cells. In clinical settings where hematopoietic stem cells are transplanted to rebuild the immune system, for instance following chemotherapy with the aim to eradicate cancer cells, the recovery of T lymphocytes is slow and often limited, leading to a prolonged phase of immune deficiency in which patients are highly susceptible to infections. To reveal the molecular drivers of human T cell development, the lab uses state-of-the-art technologies (single cell multi-omics and CRISPR/Cas9) on human T cell precursors, and we are also part of the human thymus cell atlas consortium. In addition to increasing our fundamental understanding of this developmental process, we also apply this knowledge to generate novel cell therapy products that can be used in the context of cancer, such as human T cell precursors and γδ T cells. Furthermore, since many of the key transcriptional regulators of normal T lymphocyte development are often aberrantly expressed in T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia, another part of our work aims to reveal how gain- or loss-of-function expression of these factors alters normal T cell development and contributes to oncogenic transformation. 
 

The team of Prof. Taghon has important in vitro and in vivo models for studying hematopoiesis (read more via the intranet), e.g. differentiation of HCSs into different lineages, and in vivo reconstitution models. They are open to share this expertise with industrial and academic partners for collaborative projects.
 

• Master in Biotechnology (1997, Ghent University)
• PhD in Medical Sciences (2002, lab of Dr. Georges Leclercq and Dr. Jean Plum, Ghent University)
• Postdoc at California Institute of Technology (US, lab of Dr. Ellen Rothenberg)
• Odysseus II Grant (2007)
• Award of the Royal Academy of Medical Sciences Belgium for fundamental medical research (2009)
• FWO expert panel member
• Immune network coordinator for the Human Cell Atlas
   

• prof. Tom Taghon - principal investigator, full professor
• dr. Kai Ling Liang (PhD) - post-doctoral fellow
• dr. Lena Boehme (PhD) - post-doctoral fellow
• dr. Nicole Oatman (PhD) - post-doctoral fellow
• dr. Jeffrey Aalders (PhD) - post-doctoral fellow
• Jolien Van Hulle - doctoral fellow
• Maryam Hassan - doctoral fellow
• Michaela Cesnekova - doctoral fellow
• Cato Deliaert - doctoral fellow
• Silke Paepens - doctoral fellow
• Tom Putteman - bio-IT support
• Imke Velghe - technician
• Yana Van Droogenbroeck - technician
   

• 'A spatial human thymus cell atlas mapped to a continuous tissue axis'. Nature. 2024 Nov;635(8039):708-718. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07944-6. Epub 2024 Nov 20.PMID: 39567784             
• 'HES6 knockdown in human hematopoietic precursor cells reduces their in vivo engraftment potential and their capacity to differentiate into erythroid cells, B cells, T cells and plasmacytoid dendritic cells'. Haematologica. 2024 Nov 1;109(11):3578-3592. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2023.283432.PMID: 38572564
• 'Intrathymic dendritic cell-biased precursors promote human T cell lineage specification through IRF8-driven transmembrane TNF'. Nat Immunol. 2023
• 'Development of γδ T cells in the thymus - A human perspective'. Semin Immunol. 2022 
• 'Distinct and temporary-restricted epigenetic mechanisms regulate human αβ and γδ T cell development'. Nature Immunology. 2020. 
• 'Integrated single cell RNAseq identifies human postnatal thymus seeding progenitors and regulatory dynamics of differentiating immature thymocytes'. Immunity. 2020. 
• 'A cell atlas of human thymic development defines T cell repertoire formation'. Science. 2020 
• 'Safe targeting of T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia by pathology-specific NOTCH inhibition'; Science Translational Medicine 2019 11:494
• 'ZEB2 and LMO2 drive immature T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia via distinct oncogenic mechanisms'. ; Haematologica. 2019 104:1608
• 'Deletion 6q drives T-cell leukemia progression by ribosome modulation.;Cancer Discov.' 2018 12:1614
• 'A novel tumour-suppressor function for the Notch pathway in myeloid leukaemia'., Nature, 2011 (PMID: 21562564)
   

• Corneel Heymanslaan 10, ingang 38, MRB2, 9000 Gent
• Taghon Lab
• Shiny apps with data from Yayon et al., Nature 2024 and Lavaert et al., Immunity 2020
• ResearchGate