Immune Systems & Stem Cells
Members of the Immune Systems & Stem Cells research area are interested in understanding how immune systems and stem cells regulate organismal health and disease. We investigate the beneficial immune processes that protect us from infection and cancer as well as harmful ones that cause allergy, autoimmune disease, and transplant rejection. We study mechanisms of immune cell development and differentiation, interactions with commensal and pathogenic microbes at mucosal surfaces, inflammation, adaptive immunity (T cells & B cells), and responses to infections and vaccines. We investigate these topics in humans and animal models.
Our human studies greatly benefit from the support of the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection (ITI) and the Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC). We also study immune defense systems in bacteria that protect them from phage infection. Insights from this work have inspired the discovery of novel immune mechanisms across lifeforms and has led to the development of new tools for molecular biology research and biomedicine.
Our stem cell biology research is generously supported by the Baxter Laboratory, which brings together collaborative scientists interested in understanding basic mechanisms of disease and in leveraging biological systems to find new cures for important human diseases. As several of the diseases under investigation in the Baxter Laboratory are of immune origin or shaped by inflammation, close interactions between the Stem Cell and Immunology communities prove mutually beneficial. Collectively, through our work on immune systems and stem cells we seek to improve human health.
Jennifer K. Bando
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Our lab uses mouse genetics to investigate how innate lymphocytes are behaviorally controlled by their spatial organization within the gastrointestinal tract and by interactions with adaptive immune cells. We also study how these and other intestinal innate immune cells contribute to tissue development and host defense in neonatal mice.
Helen Blau
Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Our focus is on the basic molecular mechanisms of stem cells and muscle and their application to aging, regenerative medicine, & stem cells, nuclear reprogramming, cell fate plasticity and disease. Our overall objective is to gain mechanistic understanding and translate our discoveries to improve quality of life. Our current primary focus is on the gerozyme 15-PGDH, a major molecular driver of aging, and how its effects can be reversed and tissues rejuvenated by a drug that inactivates it.
Matthew Bogyo
Professor of Pathology and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology
Our laboratory is interested in developing and applying chemical tools to dissect the functional roles of hydrolases in a number of human pathogens and commensal bacteria. We are currently using synthetic chemistry and phage display methods to build new reagents that allow enzyme activity to be slectively inhibited as well as monitored in complex biological samples including cells, tissues and whole organisms.
Paul Bollyky
Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, are abundant in the human body. However, their contributions to human health and disease are largely unknown. The Bollyky Lab studies interactions between phages and both their human and bacterial hosts with the goal of developing innovative strategies to improve human health.
Jan Carette
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Our lab is interested in the host pathways that determine the susceptibility of humans to viral disease. Viruses constantly evolve to exploit host machineries for their benefit whilst disarming host restriction mechanisms. Discovery of host proteins critical for viral infection illuminates basic aspects of cellular biology, reveals intricate virus host relationships, and leads to potential targets for antiviral therapeutics.
Yueh-hsiu Chien
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Our main research focus is to define γδ T cell function so that we can better understand host immune defense. γδ T cells, together with B cells and αβ T cells, are the only cells that use somatic V, D, J gene rearrangement to generate diverse antigen receptors.
Mark Davis
Burt and Marion Avery Family Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
We are interested in how T and B lymphocytes recognize specific antigens. This interest includes the structural and biochemical underpinnings of T cell receptor binding and signal transduction and the dynamics of molecular movement at the T cell/antigen-presenting cell interface.
Elizabeth Egan
Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases)
The Egan Lab seeks to understand how host factors from red blood cells influence the biology and pathogenesis of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. We are addressing a number of exciting questions in the lab, ranging from molecular parasitology to hematology to evolutionary biology, all with the long-term goal of understanding host-pathogen interactions in malaria.
Shirit Einav
Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
We focus on understanding the roles of virus-host interactions in viral infection and disease pathogenesis via both molecular and systems virology/immunology single cell approaches. This program is combined with translational efforts to apply this knowledge for the development of broad-spectrum host-centered antiviral approaches to combat emerging viral infections, including dengue, encephalitic alphaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 and Ebola, and means to predict disease progression.
Stephen Galli
Mary Hewitt Loveless, MD, Professor in the School of Medicine and Professor of Pathology
The goals of the Galli laboratory are to develop and employ genetic approaches in mice to understand the regulation of mast cell and basophil development and the expression of mast cell and basophil function, and to elucidate the roles of these cells in health and disease.
Alex Gao
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
We integrate computational genome mining with high-throughput experimental approaches to harness the rich diversity of microbial genes, with the goal of developing new antibiotic strategies and molecular biotechnology. A major area of current interest is uncovering novel molecular functions involved in anti-phage defense and bacteria–phage interactions.
Michael Howitt
Assistant Professor of Pathology
The Howitt Lab is broadly interested in how intestinal microbes shape our immune system to promote both health and disease. Elucidating the interactions between the microbiota and immune system.
Peter Jackson
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
We study signaling pathways with relevance to human disease. We use a combination of high-throughput screening and profiling as well as a wide range of biochemical, genetic, and molecular techniques. These approaches allow us to identify novel pathways and components, as well as elucidate their mechanism of action.
Prasanna Jagannathan
Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
The Jagannathan Lab focuses on human immunology of infectious diseases. The main objectives of our group are to study naturally acquired immunity to malaria in childhood, the immune response to Pf infection during pregnancy, novel interventions to prevent malaria in endemic settings, and the immunologic benefits of malaria control interventions.
Holden Maecker
Professor (Research)
A major theme in our group is to define metrics of immune competence in various settings, including cancer immunotherapy, organ transplantation, allergy, and chronic viral infection. We use CyTOF mass cytometry, often in combination with other technologies, to broadly survey immune features at the cellular level, then examine links between features or groups of features and clinical outcome.
Denise Monack
Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
The Monack Lab studies pathogen-microbiota interactions in the gut and has discovered that specific commensal bacteria-derived metabolites help defend against bacteria that cause food poisoning. In addition, the laboratory studies how immune cells recognize pathogenic bacteria that are residing within them.
Antonio Pagán
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
We are interested in regulation of immunity and pathogenesis in tuberculosis (TB). TB is characterized by the formation of multicellular aggregates of immune cells called granulomas. We leverage genetics and imaging capabilities of genetically diverse fish models of TB, which capture key features of human TB granulomas, to address fundamental questions in mycobacterial pathogenesis and granuloma immunobiology.
Peter Parham
Professor of Structural Biology and, by courtesy, of Microbiology and Immunology
The Parham laboratory investigates the biology, genetics, and evolution of Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class I molecules, natural killer (NK) cell receptors, and other immune system molecules.
Trung Pham
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases)
The Pham Lab seeks to uncover mechanisms of tissue immunity and immunophysiology during persistent infection. We may be able to decode the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that can be harnessed to eradicate infections, promote tissue resilience, and restore health after an infectious insult.
Bali Pulendran
Violetta L. Horton Professor, Director, Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection
The Pulendran Lab is focused on understanding the mechanisms by which the innate immune system regulates adaptive immunity and harnessing such mechanisms in the design of novel vaccines. We pioneered the use of systems biological approaches to understand and predict immunity to vaccination and infection in humans.
David Schneider
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
We study innate immunity and microbial pathogenesis. We have been studying models for a variety of bacterial infections including: Listeria, Mycobacteria, Salmonella and Streptococcus as well as some fungi, malaria and viruses. Our current focus is to determine how we recover from infections.
Justin Sonnenburg
Alex and Susie Algard Endowed Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
The goals of our lab are to elucidate the basic mechanisms that underlie dynamics within the gut microbiota and devise and implement strategies to prevent and treat disease in humans via the gut microbiota. We investigate the principles that govern gut microbial community function and interaction with the host using experimental systems ranging from gnotobiotic mice to humans.
Hawa Racine Thiam
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering
Our lab aims to understand how innate immune cells detect, generate and transmit the cell-scale physical forces required for the well execution of their functions both in health and disease.
Taia T. Wang
Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbiology and Immunology
Our lab is driven by the hypothesis that the Fc domain repertoire of an individual determines the quality of effector cell responses that can be recruited during immune activation, in turn impacting susceptibility to infectious diseases. Our overarching goals are to expand the understanding of how antibodies function in vivo and to elucidate FcγR pathways that can be harnessed towards the development of enhanced vaccines and therapeutics.