Alexander Mørch

My research is centered around understanding how T cell coreceptors CD4 and CD8 contribute to lymphocyte activation by integrating signaling through the TCR. Although CD4 and CD8 are responsible for the extraordinary sensitivity of T cells to antigen, the molecular mechanisms by which they function are unclear. I am investigating the relative organization and dynamics of coreceptors as they accumulate at the immunological synapse through super-resolution imaging, spectroscopy, and biochemical analysis. This project is a collaborative effort with Prof. Simon Davis (Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine) with whom I undertook both my Masters’ project and a Laidlaw Scholarship.

I started my Wellcome Trust-funded DPhil in the Dustin lab in 2019 having done rotations on malarial surface antigens with Matthew Higgins (Dept. of Biochemistry) and phenotypic modeling with Omer Dushek (Sir William Dunn School of Pathology). Prior to this, I completed my undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the University of Oxford.