Research
The primary interest of the lab is to understand gene circuits of immune cells involved in differentiation, activation and regulation. Specifically, we are focusing on exploring these cells and circuits in the context of the tumor microenvironment following stimulation, immunotherapies or cell-cell interactions.
We apply cutting-edge technologies including mouse tumor models, molecular biology, single cell RNAseq and other high-throughput genetic and genomic methods combined with advanced computational approaches to identify and functionally characterize genes that play an important role in immune cell circuits and their effect on tumor growth.
This approach will enable in-depth studies of immune-cell signaling with tumor-resident cell types and the tumor microenvironment. Moreover, this approach can be readily adapted explore the effects of these genetic circuits in other settings, such as immune cells in organ-specific autoimmunity.
These unique signaling signatures could become new ‘biomarkers’ and facilitate our understanding of both disease pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment.