Human T cells play a central role in the human response to tuberculosis and in efforts to develop better vaccines. For decades, it was thought that T cells only that recognize antigens in the context of a diverse array of presentation molecules such that an epitope could be considered private, or restricted to each patient or human donor. Therefore, broad detection or alteration of T cell responses to one kind of antigen in all humans was viewed as technologically impossible. Over the past decade “Donor Unrestricted T cells” (DURT) that recognize their antigens through highly conserved molecules that are present among all humans have been discovered. The CTVD DURT research community seeks to harness these donor unrestricted T cell responses to MR1, CD1 and HLA-E proteins for improved vaccines against TB.

The DURT research community is comprised of individuals from different Institutions worldwide and includes the following members:​​

Tom	Ottenhoff	Co-chair
Chetan	Seshadri	Co-chair
John	Altman	Member
Erin	Adams	Member
Yueh-Hsiu	Chien	Member
Dan	Hoft	Member
Mitch	Kronenberg	Member
Dave	Lewinsohn	Member
Branch	Moody	Member
Jonah	Sacha	Member
​Steffen	Stenger	Member
​Emmanuel	Treiner	Member
Ildiko	Van Rhijn	Member​​​​​
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