Our research group is at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the Department of Lab Medicine. We are affiliated with the UCSF Immunology (ImmunoX) Program, Biomedical Sciences (BMS) Graduate Program/Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), Pulmonary Research Group, Liver Center, Neuroimmunology Research Center, and Diabetes Center. Our research lab goals are to understand tissue immune cells in settings of organ development, remodeling, infection, aging, and pathology while providing a strong, supportive training environment. Through our study of tissue-resident immune cells and their regulation, we hope to define novel pathways that can be targeted in prevalent human diseases that impact (and span) multiple organs, including metabolic diseases (diabetes, NASH), allergic pathologies (asthma, allergy), skin disorders, and neuropsychiatric diseases.
We hypothesize that tissue-resident/-localized immune cells are dominantly governed by their local environment (niche), defined by specialized stromal, epithelial, neuronal, endothelial, and immune subsets. To test and refine our broad hypothesis, we pair classic tissue-immunology models and approaches with 3D volumetric microscopy, allowing us to visualize and quantify these complex topographic interactions. We have previously focused on type-2 immune-associated lymphocytes (e.g., group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2), T helper type 2 (Th2) cells, and regulatory T (Treg) cell subsets) and the stromal niche subsets (states) and signals involved in their tissue regulation. More recently, we have also studied tissue niches of other ‘flavors’ of tissue-resident lymphocytes (e.g., type 1, type 3/17, regulatory T cells) and myeloid cells (e.g. monocytes, monocyte-derived macrophages, and embryonically-derived tissue macrophages). We hope that through our studies of dynamic tissue immune niches, we can better understand and target tissue modeling/remodeling in health and disease.