Disease and the immune response
Pathogenesis—literally how disease (pathos) begins (genesis) or develops—is a broad and important area of research.
Many diseases can arise from pathogens, but the immune system protects us through various lines of defense. If the immune system fails to function properly and becomes too weak or too strong, it can lead to disease states that include immunodeficiencies that lead to enhanced susceptibly to infections disease, autoimmune conditions, such as lupus and arthritis, and even cancer.

Director's statement
Our focus is on understanding the regulation and interplay of host immune responses and microbial pathogenesis. We study pathogen-host interactions, innate and humoral immunity, inflammation and T cell checkpoint regulation. A better understanding of these aspects of the immune system will provide novel therapeutic opportunities to address many unmet medical needs, including the treatment of endemic and pandemic infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, cancer and inflammatory diseases.
– Jamey Marth, Ph.D., Program Director
Appointments
Program Director
Primary Appointments
Victoria Blaho, Ph.D.
Andrei Osterman, Ph.D.
Carl F. Ware, Ph.D.
Secondary Appointments
Linda Bradley, Ph.D.
Maximiliano D'Angelo, Ph.D.
Ze'ev Ronai, Ph.D.
Guy Salvesen, Ph.D.
Evan Snyder, M.D., Ph.D.
Publications
Realigning the LIGHT signaling network to control dysregulated inflammation.
Ware CF, Croft M, Neil GA
J Exp Med 2022 Jul 4 ;219(7)
Shared and Unique Evolutionary Trajectories to Ciprofloxacin Resistance in Gram-Negative Bacterial Pathogens.
Zlamal JE, Leyn SA, Iyer M, Elane ML, Wong NA, Wamsley JW, Vercruysse M, Garcia-Alcalde F, Osterman AL
mBio 2021 Jun 29 ;12(3):e0098721
Sphingosine 1-phosphate escapes the Catch-22 of sepsis prevention and mitigation therapies.
Blaho VA
EBioMedicine 2020 Sep ;59:102952
Addressing barriers in FAIR data practices for biomedical data.
Hughes LD, Tsueng G, DiGiovanna J, Horvath TD, Rasmussen LV, Savidge TC, Stoeger T, Turkarslan S, Wu Q, Wu C, Su AI, Pache L, NIAID Systems Biology Data Dissemination Working Group
Sci Data 2023 Feb 23 ;10(1):98
Developing a standardized but extendable framework to increase the findability of infectious disease datasets.
Tsueng G, Cano MAA, Bento J, Czech C, Kang M, Pache L, Rasmussen LV, Savidge TC, Starren J, Wu Q, Xin J, Yeaman MR, Zhou X, Su AI, Wu C, Brown L, Shabman RS, Hughes LD, NIAID Systems Biology Data Dissemination Working Group
Sci Data 2023 Feb 23 ;10(1):99
Identification of global inhibitors of cellular glycosylation.
Sørensen DM, Büll C, Madsen TD, Lira-Navarrete E, Clausen TM, Clark AE, Garretson AF, Karlsson R, Pijnenborg JFA, Yin X, Miller RL, Chanda SK, Boltje TJ, Schjoldager KT, Vakhrushev SY, Halim A, Esko JD, Carlin AF, Hurtado-Guerrero R, Weigert R, Clausen H, Narimatsu Y
Nat Commun 2023 Feb 20 ;14(1):948
Activation of the Interferon Pathway in Trophoblast Cells Productively Infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Kallol S, Martin-Sancho L, Morey R, Aisagbonhi O, Pizzo D, Meads M, Chanda SK, Soncin F
Stem Cells Dev 2023 Mar 22 ;
COG4 mutation in Saul-Wilson syndrome selectively affects secretion of proteins involved in chondrogenesis in chondrocyte-like cells.
Xia ZJ, Mahajan S, Paul Daniel EJ, Ng BG, Saraswat M, Campos AR, Murad R, He M, Freeze HH
Front Cell Dev Biol 2022 ;10:979096
SARS-CoV-2 infects human brain organoids causing cell death and loss of synapses that can be rescued by treatment with Sofosbuvir.
Mesci P, de Souza JS, Martin-Sancho L, Macia A, Saleh A, Yin X, Snethlage C, Adams JW, Avansini SH, Herai RH, Almenar-Queralt A, Pu Y, Szeto RA, Goldberg G, Bruck PT, Papes F, Chanda SK, Muotri AR
PLoS Biol 2022 Nov ;20(11):e3001845