Immunology & Microbiology Research Labs
Host-Pathogen Interactions Research
| Lab | What we work on |
| David J. Barton, PhD | The Barton lab studies RNA viruses and host endoribonucleases. An RNA element within group C enteroviruses inhibits ribonuclease L - protecting the virus from this antiviral endoribonuclease. We use deep sequencing methods - in collaboration with the Hesselberth lab - to examine how endoribonucleases influence health and disease |
| Kelly Doran, PhD | My lab seeks to elucidate the mechanisms by which Group B streptococcus colonizes the vaginal tract during pregnancy and penetrates the blood-brain barrier in the newborn to cause meningitis. We use molecular genetic approaches as well as cell based and animal models to identify bacterial virulence determinants and host factors that contribute to disease progression |
| Breck A. Duerkop, PhD | My current research focuses on intestinal bacteria and bacteriophages. We employ culture-based approaches, animal models, and computational methods to study how intestinal bacteriophages impact the interactions of bacteria with their mammalian hosts |
| Alexander Horswill, PhD | Social activities of Staphylococci and host-pathogen interactions |
| Marjke Keestra-Gounder, PhD | My research focusses on elucidating pathways of innate immunity in response to Salmonella Typhimurium and Citrobacter rodentium |
| Laurel Lenz, PhD | We study how bacterial pathogens interact with myeloid and other innate immune cells, with an emphasis on their exploitation of interferons and natural killer cells |
| Thomas E. Morrison, PhD | Immunological mechanisms that influence the clearance or persistence of arboviruses and protozoan parasites; Molecular mechanisms by which pathogens counteract host innate and adaptive immune responses |
| R. Lee Reinhardt, PhD | My lab studies type-2 immunity in the context of allergic disease (asthma, allergy, atopic dermatitis) as well as the host response to neglected tropical diseases caused by parasitic helminth and leishmania infection. We also have ongoing research in models of autoinflammatory disease |
| Rosemary Rochford, PhD | My lab does research on two human pathogens, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Plasmodium falciparum and their etiologic link to Burkitt's lymphoma, the most common childhood cancer in Sub-Sahara Africa |
| Brian Russo, PhD | We are interested in determining the molecular mechanisms by which bacteria interact with cells. Our research is focused on Shigella flexneri |
| Michael Schurr, PhD | The Schurr laboratory is interested in mechanisms of transcriptional regulation in bacterial pathogenesis and is focused on a Pseudomonas aeruginosa global two-component regulator, AlgZR that controls at least 155 genes. We are using transcriptional profiling, genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry to determine the genes controlled and conditions of expression used by P. aeruginosa for these regulators |
| Linda van Dyk, PhD | The van Dyk lab investigates molecular interactions between virus and host that impact infection and cancer. The main projects in the lab include analysis of a virus encoded cyclin with a host tumor suppressor protein and characterization of non-coding RNAs that regulate the innate immune response and chronic infection |
| Andres Vazquez-Torres, DVM, PhD | Our group studies innate host defenses of macrophages against intracellular bacterial and protozoan pathogens |
Immunology Research
| Lab | Description |
| Scott Alper, PhD | The Alper lab is focused on understanding the regulation of the innate immune response, particularly as it relates to the basis for inflammatory diseases |
| Rocky Baker, PhD | I have focused my research on understanding how islet-reactive CD4 T cells are activated in the context of T1D and investigating their contribution to the pathogenesis of autoimmune diabetes |
| John C. Cambier, PhD | In vivo biology and signaling in naïve and autoreactive human B cells, molecular function of autoimmunity risk alleles operative in regulatory signaling pathways in B cells, and STING function in B cells |
| Zhangguo Chen, PhD | My research interest is to elucidate the mechanisms of signaling control of class switch recombination and its application in autoimmunity |
| Rachel Friedman, PhD | We focus on understanding how T cell tolerance is maintained or broken by cellular and environmental factors at the disease site during autoimmunity, particularly in diabetes |
| James Hagman, PhD | Work in our laboratory addresses the regulation of normal lymphocyte development by transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms; oncogenes and leukemogenesis; and transcriptional control of autoimmunity |
| Peter Henson, PhD | Cell biology of the mononuclear phagocyte system with relation to inflammation, innate and adaptive immunity and maintenance of, or return to, normal tissue homeostasis |
| Elena Hsieh, MD | Our goal is to enable a deeper understanding of normal pediatric immune development, dysregulated immune processes in children with immunodeficiency, autoimmunity, and the overlap between the two |
| Hua Huang, PhD | We study signaling and transcriptional regulation of genes that control innate effector cell development and function, with a focus on how master transcription factors induce a network of downstream transcription factors and how these transcription factors and their associated enhancers and promoters detect signal inputs triggered by immunological stimuli and convert them into transcriptional outputs in the normal and diseased immune system |
| Jordan Jacobelli, PhD | The Jacobelli lab works on characterizing the molecular regulation of lymphocyte migration, cell-cell interactions, and activation during immune surveillance and in disease settings such as autoimmunity and cancer |
| Ross Kedl, PhD | Most inflammation seems best suited for making more inflammation, not for giving T cells the signals they need to expand and survive. My lab studies what innate signals are able to facilitate the transition between innate and adaptive responses and how that information can be best utilized in the making of novel vaccines that produce therapeutically effective T cell responses |
| Laurel Lenz, PhD | We study mechanisms for regulation of innate immune responses with an emphasis on how interferons and natural killer cells impact myeloid cell responses |
| Rebecca O'Brien, PhD | The overall goal of my lab is to investigate the role of gamma/delta T cells in immune responses and inflammation. Using autoimmune disease models, we are investigating how some of these cells exacerbate autoimmunity by promoting inflammation, whereas others have an immunoregulatory effect |
| Roberta Pelanda, PhD | The Pelanda lab studies the B cell intrinsic and extrinsic signals that guide the development, selection and activation of autoreactive and non-autoreactive B cells and of autoantibody-producing cells in both mice and humans, with the goal of understanding potential causes of immunodeficiencies and autoimmune diseases |
| R. Lee Reinhardt, PhD | My lab studies type-2 immunity in the context of allergic disease (asthma, allergy, atopic dermatitis) as well as the host response to neglected tropical diseases caused by parasitic helminth and leishmania infection. We also have ongoing research in models of autoinflammatory disease |
| David Riches, PhD | Our lab is focused on investigating the mechanism involved in the development and resolution of lung inflammation and fibrosis, especially the cross talk between macrophages and fibroblasts |
| Rosemary Rochford, PhD | My lab studies the T cell tropism of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) Type 2 strain. In addition, we are evaluating the development of immunity to EBV and P. falciparum malaria in an infant cohort based in western Kenya |
| Jill Slansky, PhD | We are interested in how cancer and the immune system interact on many levels, but mainly focus on how CD8 T cells recognize tumor antigens in people and animals |
| Raul Torres, PhD | We have a long-standing interest in investigating the mechanisms by which B lymphocytes develop and subsequently mount antibody responses to foreign antigens and pathogens |
| Linda van Dyk, PhD | The van Dyk lab investigates molecular interactions between virus and host that impact infection and cancer. The main projects in the lab include analysis of a virus encoded cyclin with a host tumor suppressor protein and characterization of non-coding RNAs that regulate the innate immune response and chronic infection |
| Jing Wang, MD, PhD | Our research focuses on molecular mechanism of somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR) in B lymphocytes and mechanisms of immune evasion in B cell lymphomas or head neck squamous carcinomas (HNSCC) |
| Gongyi Zhang, PhD | 1) Epigenetic regulation in T and B cells; 2) Neurodegenerative diseases and Inflammation |
Microbiology Research
| Lab | Description |
| David J. Barton, PhD | The Barton lab studies picornaviruses and viral RNA replication. In collaboration with Olve Peersen at CSU, we seek to understand how structural features in the viral polymerase influence viral RNA recombination & error catastrophe |
| Kelly Doran, PhD | My lab seeks to elucidate the mechanisms by which Group B streptococcus colonizes the vaginal tract during pregnancy and penetrates the blood-brain barrier in the newborn to cause meningitis. We use molecular genetic approaches as well as cell based and animal models to identify bacterial virulence determinants and host factors that contribute to disease progression |
| Breck Duerkop, PhD | My current research focuses on intestinal bacteria and bacteriophages. We employ culture-based approaches, animal models, and computational methods to study how intestinal bacteriophages impact the interactions of bacteria with their mammalian hosts |
| Alexander Horswill, PhD | Social activities of Staphylococci and host-pathogen interactions |
| Marjke Keestra-Gounder, PhD | My research focusses on elucidating pathways of innate immunity in response to Salmonella Typhimurium and Citrobacter rodentium |
| Laurel Lenz, PhD | We study how Listeria monocytogenes and other bacteria manipulate mammalian cell biology to establish and propagate infections |
| Thomas E. Morrison, PhD | Molecular pathogenesis of acute and chronic disease caused by arthropod-borne viruses and protozoan parasites |
| Rosemary Rochford, PhD | My lab has developed the only available pre-clinical humanized mouse model to test for hemolytic toxicity of anti-malaria drugs in the context of G6PD deficiency. We are developing this model to further study Plasmodium infection in G6PDd hosts |
| Brian Russo, PhD | We are interested in determining the molecular mechanisms by which bacteria interact with cells. Our research is focused on Shigella flexneri |
| Michael Schurr, PhD | The Schurr laboratory is interested in mechanisms of transcriptional regulation in bacterial pathogenesis and is focused on a Pseudomonas aeruginosa global two-component regulator, AlgZR that controls at least 155 genes. We are using transcriptional profiling, genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry to determine the genes controlled and conditions of expression used by P. aeruginosa for these regulators |
| Linda van Dyk, PhD | The van Dyk lab investigates molecular interactions between virus and host that impact infection and cancer. The main projects in the lab include analysis of a virus encoded cyclin with a host tumor suppressor protein and characterization of non-coding RNAs that regulate the innate immune response and chronic infection |
| Andres Vazquez-Torres, DVM, PhD | Our group investigates the adaptive responses of Salmonella, E. coli and Leishmania to oxidative and nitrosative stress that make these intracellular pathogens common causes of morbidity and mortality in humans |
Research Core Labs
HI3 Cores: Human Immune
Monitoring Shared Resource (HIMSR)
Director: Jill
Slansky
Assistant
Director: Kimberly Jordan
Website: The Human Immune Monitoring Shared Resource at
CU|AMC
HI3 Cores: Pre-clinical Human Immune System
Mice Share Resource (PHISM)
Director: Roberta
Pelanda
Co-Director: Julie
Lang
Website: Pre-clinical Human Immune System Mouse model
and Analysis Shared Resource
The Genetically Engineered Murine Models (GEMM)
Director:
Jennifer Matsuda
Website: GEMM Core Lab
Gnotobiotic Core
Director: Jordi M. Lanis, PhD
Technician:
Kaitlyn Cox
Website: Gnotobiotic Core