Our Approach

"The Hill Lab studies the intersection of diet, metabolism, and immune function using basic, translational, and clinical research approaches."

The Hill Lab studies how diet and metabolism influence immune health and inflammatory disease. To do so, we leverage in-house epidemiology to study disease patterns and guide mechanistic investigations of the immune system in mouse models and patient samples. The majority of our discoveries have been relevant to the prevention, diagnosis, and/or treatment of food allergy, asthma, and metabolic inflammatory diseases.

Active areas of investigation include:

Development of novel clinical tools to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of food allergy

Our lab is actively developing new clinical tools to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of immune responses in allergic disease. A recent example of this work is the development of a novel functional T cell assay that accurately detects food-activated T cells in the circulation of children with food allergy.

Studies of non-conventional immune responses in allergic diseases

We were among a team of investigators that recently described a novel interferon gene signature in children and adults with eosinophilic esophagitis. We are following up on this observation with mechanistic studies in animal models and translational studies in patient samples to determine the origins and effects of this conventionally non-allergic immune response.

Determining the mechanisms of diet and metabolic immune dysregulation

We identified a unique subset of macrophages that regulate adipose tissue function and metabolic health. We study how these macrophages function in adipose tissue, and are extending these observations to other metabolic inflammatory diseases including HIV infection, non-allergic asthma, and COVID-19.

Epidemiologic studies of allergic and metabolic disease patterns in children

We developed novel methods to study pediatric allergic disease patterns using longitudinal electronic health records. We have applied these approaches to study food protein-induced enterocolitis, eosinophilic esophagitis, the effects of the COVID19 pandemic on pediatric asthma, and the emerging concept of allergic march trajectories. Ongoing studies are applying these approaches to national data-sets to uncover novel aspects of how allergic diseases develop and progress during childhood.