Our research group is at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and positioned at the Parnassus campus. 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 goals are to understand how immune cell positioning and intercellular interactions with surrounding ‘niche’ cells sculpt organ development, remodeling, response to infection, aging, and disease pathology. We also believe in providing a strong, supportive training environment and helping launch the next generation of amazing biomedical scientists. Through our study of tissue-resident immune cells, we hope to define novel pathways that can be targeted in prevalent human diseases that impact - and span- multiple organs, including neuropsychiatric diseases, metabolic diseases (diabetes, MASH, cirrhosis), allergic pathologies (asthma, allergy), skin disorders, and infectious diseases.

We hypothesize that tissue-resident (-localized) immune cells are dominantly governed by their local environment, defined by specialized stromal, epithelial, neuronal, endothelial, and immune subsets. To test and elaborate upon our broad hypothesis, we pair classic tissue-immunology models and approaches with volumetric (3D) confocal microscopy, allowing us to visualize and quantify these complex topographic interactions. We have previously defined 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 worked to understand the organ niches of other ‘flavors’ of tissue-resident lymphocytes (e.g., type 1, type 3/17, cytotoxic), as well as myeloid cell subsets (e.g. monocytes, monocyte-derived macrophages, and embryonically-derived tissue macrophages).  We hope that through our studies, we can more precisely understand and target cross-organ, conserved stromal-immune (re)modeling programs throughout human healthspan and with disease.