The Tenthorey lab is broadly interested in the mechanics of how the innate immune system is built to withstand the evolutionary pressures of many different kinds of viral infections. One of the most difficult challenges that the innate immune system faces is an evolutionary problem: unlike adaptive immunity, innate immune proteins do not generate sequence diversity within an individual host. Nevertheless, their viral targets have massive evolutionary potential and can rapidly evolve to escape innate immune defense. In response, innate immune proteins evolve rapidly to select counter-mutations that regain defense, which viruses evolve to escape again, in an endlessly repeating evolutionary arms race. How can innate immune proteins possibly compete in these arms races, given that viruses evolve so much faster than their mammalian hosts? What strategies might allow for temporary or even long-term victory? To answer these fundamental questions, we dissect the evolutionary landscapes (the fitness of accessible sequence space around an extant protein) of innate immune proteins and their viral targets to map the possible evolutionary outcomes. We probe the biophysical features that make such landscapes possible, and we use the incredibly rich data to gain mechanistic insight.

The Tlsty Lab���������s main focus is on chronic inflammation, and its connection to cancer. Globally, an astounding 20-25% of cancers are linked to chronic inflammation, including cancers of the esophagus, bowel and pancreas. We are determining whether it's possible to treat the inflamed cells and tissues surrounding a tumor, rather than directing therapies at the tumor itself. Our project aims to find novel ways of treating cancer that has been caused by inflammation, and develop new options to prevent cancer developing in high-risk patients with chroni

The Turnbaugh Lab is an interdisciplinary group of microbiome researchers committed to understanding host-associated microbes, reducing these complex microbial ecologies to molecular mechanism, and applying these lessons to improve the practice of medicine. We are currently focused on two major areas: pharmacology and nutrition. We use a variety of inter-disciplinary approaches ranging from the molecular (biochemistry, bacterial genetics, structural biology) to the organismal (gnotobiotic mice, conventional animals, and human cohorts) to the ecological (synthetic microbial communities and metagenomic sequencing).

With over sixteen years of expertise in cancer and immunology, I have led projects focusing on cancer development, metastasis, and the tumor microenvironment. My research delves into the molecular mechanisms driving metastasis and tumor-host interactions.�

Dr. Wabl���������s research focus has been the generation of antibody diversity and the basis of autoimmunity. Specifically, the use of antibodies in tuberculosis therapy has been the main focus as of late. The challenge of antibody therapy exceeds the capacity of one person or a small academic lab, but can be explored in a larger setting. View Dr. Wabl�

The Waterfield Lab���������s main focus is to understand the basic mechanisms by which immune tolerance is broken. Specifically, the lab is interested in studying the role of epigenetics in the development of autoimmunity. In order to study the role of epigenetics in the development of autoimmunity, the lab utilizes a variety of novel conditional knockout mouse lines to study the effect of deletion of specific epigenetic prote

The Weiss Lab is interested in understanding how receptors involved in antigen recognition can initiate signal transduction events that regulate cell responses in the immune system. We know that receptors involved in antigen recognition functionally interact with tyrosine kinases and phosphatases, enzymes that regulate protein phosphorylation, to induce signaling pathways that regulate cellular responses and gene expression. We are using genetically selective small molecule inhibitors of kinases together with phosphatase mutants to study how thresholds for the initiation of immune responses are set and how feedback circuits influence responses. We would like to understand how the tyrosine kinases and phosphatases in these pathways are regulated and how they control cellular responses in development, in normal immune responses and in autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Wiita Lab focuses on the development of novel cancer immunotherapies. To do this, we aim to integrate our expertise in mass spectrometry-based proteomics, chemical biology, protein engineering, cellular engineering, and preclinical modeling. We have a primary interest in these therapies for the treatment of hematologic cancers spanning myeloid, lymphoid, and plasma cell malignancies.�

The Wilder Lab's goal is to understand how innate immune functions of lung epithelial cells regulate the development and progression of lung immunopathogenesis. Specifically, they are interested in investigating distinct immune gene expression and cellular responses controlled by interferon-specific dynamic control of the transcription factor ISGF3.

The Wilson Lab's research is focused on infectious and autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system. Our lab applies metagenomic and immune repertoire sequencing techniques as well as phage display autoantibody and viral antibody discovery technologies to enhance our understanding of the causes and immunopathogenesis of multiple sclerosis as well as autoimmune and infectious causes of meningoencephalitis. To fuel these inquiries, we have a large effort to biobank blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples from over 1,000 patients with a variety of neuroinflammatory diseases.

The Wolkowitz Lab's broad focus is the identification of moderators and mediators of stress effects on psychiatric and comorbid physical health, with a goal of identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention. Our������focus has been on the mechanisms of hormonal, inflammation, and stress-related mental illnesses and on peripheral-brain interactions that affect both somatic and mental health. We������have mainly applied this line of investigation to major depression and PTSD, with a focus on accelerated biological aging. We are interested in uncovering mechanisms by which depression and other serious mental illnesses become associated with a surfeit of diseases of aging in affected individuals. Our group has specific knowledge of biomarkers that are relevant to these neuropsychiatric and other illnesses, such as inflammation, steroids and neurosteroids, cellular aging (telomere length and telomerase activity; epigenetic aging), oxidative stress, neurotrophic factors and metabolomtabolomics and mitochondrial functioning. Our lab is beginning to additionally explore the gut-microbiome-brain axis in major depression. We have just concluded a 10-year NIMH study,�"Cell Aging in Major Depression,"��and are fitting our data into mechanistic models that may clarify the mediators and mechanisms of illness in the context of stress and psychiatric illness.

The Woodruff Lab's������research comprises both������clinical and translational research into a range of lung diseases including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and granulomatous lung diseases (e.g. sarcoidosis and hypersensitivity pneumonitis). These studies fall into three specific categories: 1) the identification of distinct molecular sub-phenotypes of these diseases;������2) the elucidation of disease-relevant mechanisms of airway inflammation and remodeling in the lung;��