We study and engineer the innate immune system to improve immunotherapy and implant effectiveness

The innate immune system provides a rapid, initial response to immunological challenges, such as infection, vaccination, and biomedical device implantation. Vaccines are one of the most important innovations in human history, allowing us to eradicate some infectious diseases by utilizing innate cells to initiate highly specific adaptive immune responses. Likewise, biomaterial-based devices such as artificial hips and coronary stents, are implanted every hour of the day to provide lifesaving and quality-of-life improvements – innate immune cells cleanup the damaged tissue from surgical insertion. A challenge for both vaccines and implants is their limited control over these innate immune responses. Recent advances in nanotechnology and material science provide a path to achieve such precision. Our team charts a unique path focused on innate immunity by combining novel engineering platforms, advanced transcriptomics techniques, and targeting of intracellular gene expression networks. We apply this central focus on innate immunity to i) create therapeutics that counter autoimmunity, ii) engineer approaches to fight cancer, and iii) decode tissue-specific innate immune cells surrounding implants.