Research

The immune system is a sensory system, a sixth sense, whose role it is to sense the environment (external or internal) and respond to changes in that environment. Immunity is based on a complex and diffuse system of interacting cells whose net output is greater than the sum of its parts.

Until recently, the high complexity of this system inhibited its measurement and hence studying system-level immune properties and variation was difficult.

Leveraging the recent explosion in ‘omic measurement technologies, our lab is:

(1) Developing new analytical methodologies for grappling with the high complexity of the immune system. In particular, we are advancing a Cell-Centered Analysis Model whose goals it is to improve signal detection and data interpretation by putting all measured data and knowledge into the context of interacting cells, even if the data was measured in bulk tissue. We do so through development of algorithmic methods for data (e.g. statistical deconvolution and a single cell analysis methodologies) and knowledge (i.e. Natural language processing) we and others develop which rely heavily on machine-learning.

These we apply to studies in mice and men, where broad high-resolution measurements of immune function serve two complementary goals:

Immune landscape

 

(2) At the basic research level to chart the immune system landscape – Similarly to Waddindgoton’s epigenetic landscape for differentating stem cells, we wish to understand  how the immune system varies over time as a function of environment and genetics, and simultaneously, identifying design principles of the immune system

 

(3) the identification of predictive biomarkers and new therapeutic directions for advancing the development of human immune monitoring.