Research

We are interested in understanding how the nervous system regulates innate immunity. Upon pathogen infection, cellular stress pathways and microbial killing pathways are rapidly activated by the host innate immune system. These pathways must be tightly regulated as insufficient immune responses exacerbate infection, whereas excessive responses lead to prolonged inflammation, tissue damage or even death. Increasing evidence indicates that the nervous system regulates the immune system to help maintain immunological homeostasis. However, the precise mechanisms of such regulation are not well understood. We have discovered multiple immunomodulatory neural circuits in Caenorhabditis elegans that regulate the innate immune response to pathogens.  We are dissecting these neural circuits at molecular and cellular levels to elucidate how neural-immune regulation works.