Chief, Clinical Research Branch;
Clinical Director and Chair - Clinical Advisory Committee (CAC);
Principal Investigator
Acting Chief, Immunity, Inflammation, and Disease Laboratory and Principal Investigator
Research Summary
The Immunity, Inflammation, and Disease Laboratory focuses on understanding how the human body protects itself against environmental exposures. Diet, commercial chemicals, or bacterial allergens, may pose a threat to the body, and as a result, the immune system produces white blood cells that recognize and respond to these foreign substances called antigens. Sometimes the white blood cells release too many chemicals in the blood, which leads to inflammation. Laboratory members investigate the mechanisms that cause inflammatory diseases that occur in the thymus, heart, lungs, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, and intestine.
Principal Investigators
Cell Biology
Acting Chief, Immunity, Inflammation, and Disease Laboratory and Principal Investigator
Clinical Investigation of Host Defense
Chief, Clinical Research Branch;
Clinical Director and Chair - Clinical Advisory Committee (CAC);
Principal Investigator
Environmental Cardiopulmonary Disease
Scientific Director and Principal Investigator
Immunogenetics
Integrative Genomic Epidemiology
Matrix Biology
Scientific Support Staff
Administrative Support
Latonya D. Staton
Administrative Specialist
Biological Animal Support
Laura M. Degraff
Biologist
Publications
Recent Publications
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Li L, Huang H, Wang H, Pan Y, Tao H, Zhang S, Karmaus P, Fessler M, Sleasman J, Zhong X. DGKα and ζ deficiency causes regulatory T-cell dysregulation, destabilization, and conversion to pathogenic T-follicular helper cells to trigger IgG1-predominant autoimmunity.
eLife.
2026 Sep 18;14:.
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AbstractLi L, Huang H, Wang H, Pan Y, Tao H, Zhang S, Karmaus P, Fessler M, Sleasman J, Zhong X. DGKα and ζ deficiency causes regulatory T-cell dysregulation, destabilization, and conversion to pathogenic T-follicular helper cells to trigger IgG1-predominant autoimmunity. eLife. 2026 Sep 18
]
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Hughes E, Pyle C, Chambers M, Travnickova J, Mpotje T, Lowy J, Strang N, Carranza C, Ohman H, Naidoo T, Wang L, Ko D, Neff J, Gregory S, Smith C, Stout J, Lih F, Edin M, Zeldin D, Patton E, Marakalala M, Leslie A, Tobin D. Host eicosanoid signals define a granuloma fibroblast population that coordinates mycobacterial containment.
Cell host & microbe.
2026 Sep 09;34(9):1795-1813.e7.
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AbstractHughes E, Pyle C, Chambers M, Travnickova J, Mpotje T, Lowy J, Strang N, Carranza C, Ohman H, Naidoo T, Wang L, Ko D, Neff J, Gregory S, Smith C, Stout J, Lih F, Edin M, Zeldin D, Patton E, Marakalala M, Leslie A, Tobin D. Host eicosanoid signals define a granuloma fibroblast population that coordinates mycobacterial containment. Cell host & microbe. 2026 Sep 09
]
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Pathania R, Papas B, Kosak J, Cinghu S, Kumar D, Deskin B, Oldfield A, Pandey A, Siladi A, Tiwari S, Iannone M, Sifre M, Bortner C, Xu X, Mahalingam R, Deep G, Shinde R, Kotla S, Lakshmanan I, Ponnusamy M, Fessler M, Hu G, Thangaraju M, Yang P, Jothi R. Malignant epithelial diversification and inflammatory neutrophil remodeling define a transitional stage between tumor cell dissemination and overt metastatic outgrowth in breast cancer.
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.
2026 Aug 26 [Epub ahead of print].
[
AbstractPathania R, Papas B, Kosak J, Cinghu S, Kumar D, Deskin B, Oldfield A, Pandey A, Siladi A, Tiwari S, Iannone M, Sifre M, Bortner C, Xu X, Mahalingam R, Deep G, Shinde R, Kotla S, Lakshmanan I, Ponnusamy M, Fessler M, Hu G, Thangaraju M, Yang P, Jothi R. Malignant epithelial diversification and inflammatory neutrophil remodeling define a transitional stage between tumor cell dissemination and overt metastatic outgrowth in breast cancer. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology. 2026 Aug 26
]
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Wang X, Campbell M, Martos S, Li J, Bell D. Impact of tobacco smoking on estimated telomere shortening and epigenetic age acceleration among human blood immune cell types.
Clinical epigenetics.
2026 Jun 30;18(1):.
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AbstractWang X, Campbell M, Martos S, Li J, Bell D. Impact of tobacco smoking on estimated telomere shortening and epigenetic age acceleration among human blood immune cell types. Clinical epigenetics. 2026 Jun 30
]
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Kaur S, Lin Y, Nakano H, Brown P, Bhardwaj R, Massri A, Bostan H, Dutta R, Gerrish K, Cook D, Parekh A. The scaffolding protein AKAP79/150 shapes innate immune responses to allergen.
Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950).
2026 Jun 07;215(6):.
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AbstractKaur S, Lin Y, Nakano H, Brown P, Bhardwaj R, Massri A, Bostan H, Dutta R, Gerrish K, Cook D, Parekh A. The scaffolding protein AKAP79/150 shapes innate immune responses to allergen. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 2026 Jun 07
]
More Recent Publications from PubMed