Studies of molecular and cellular mechanisms for T cell-mediated immunity:

The research program in my laboratory focuses on investigating on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that govern the immune function. Recently, the signaling pathways that control cellular metabolism have been shown to have a crucial role in dictating the outcome of T cell activation and effector function. Resting CD4 and CD8 T cells use predominantly oxidative metabolismbut stimulation led them to sharply increase glucose metabolism and adopt aerobic glycolysis as a primary metabolic program. Moreover, changes in the metabolic profile of T cells are known to be responsible for defining specific effector functions and T cell subsets. Therefore, it is clear that there is a link between metabolism and the phenotype of T effector cells which influences the type of immunity.

Our recent studies revealed that molecules involved in Cul3-Keap1-Nrf2 antioxidant pathway regulate the survival and the effector function of innate T cells. Currently, we are working to discover how an antioxidant pathway regulates T cell survival and effector function; how the difference in T cell metabolism influences inflammatory responses; how signaling pathways and transcription factors cross-regulate the metabolic machinery and the effector function.