Description of Research Expertise

Research Interests

Effector and memory lymphocytes, unlike naïve lymphocytes, can efficiently enter extralymphoid tissues as well as sites of inflammation and infection. Subsequently, lymphocytes enter the afferent lymph to reach draining lymph nodes. After a short time period of residency, lymphocytes exit the lymph node via the efferent lymph, which brings them back into the blood. This dynamic process of lymphocyte recirculation, which is tightly regulated at each step, is essential for immune surveillance and efficient defense against pathogens, but it can also contribute to the development of inflammatory diseases.

My laboratory seeks to understand the regulation of lymphocyte recirculation as well as the microenvironmental localization of effector and memory lymphocytes within extralymphoid tissues. Currently, we are interested in defining the molecules involved in lymphocyte exit from peripheral tissues and its significance to protective as well pathologic immune responses in the tissue. We employ modern approaches of multi-color flow cytometry, molecular biology, gene expression profiling, histology, and in vivo models. We complement genetic and adoptive transfer mouse models with a classic model of lymph cannulation in the sheep that allows us to analyze cell compartments that are inaccessible in rodents because of their small size.

Understanding the mechanisms involved in cellular localization and recirculation will provide tools to therapeutically manipulate protective as well as inflammatory immune responses.


Current Projects:

* Mechanisms of lymphocyte exit from tissues during inflammation and infection. Significance to pathogen clearance and inflammation.

* Control of lymphocyte retention in extralymphoid tissues and its relevance to long-term protection against influenza virus infection.

* Regulation of T cell egress from inflamed skin employing models of adjuvant-induced skin granulomas as well as Leishmania major infection (the latter in collaboration with Dr. Philip Scott).

* Recirculation strategies of B and T lymphocyte subsets.