The Blish Lab

Defining Natural Immunity in Viral Disease

Welcome to our research lab page!

Our goal is to develop new methods to prevent and control infectious diseases through better understanding of human immunology. We have three major areas of ongoing investigation.

Clinical Immunology

We are very fortunate to work with patient samples from around the world and in our backyard, including from people who are exposed to and/or infected with various pathogens. We also study the immune system in normal healthy donors, pregnant women, and those with inherited immunodeficiency.

Microbial Pathogenesis

We study host-pathogen interactions using normal and lab-modified strains of HIV-1, influenza A, dengue, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, SARS-CoV-2, EBV, and others.

Innate Immune Cell Biology

We also study a subset of immune system cells including NK cells and macrophages that act as a bridge between the early events in infection and the pathogen-specific adaptive immune system. We have a longstanding interest in the diversity and function of human NK cells, which we apply to most of our projects, and a recent interest in the roles of NK cells and macrophages in granulomatous inflammation.

Dr. Catherine Blish