Theoretical Immunology Laboratory

 

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The main focus of the research in our laboratory is to understand the influence of immunity on the within-host dynamics and evolution of infectious diseases. We use mathematical models to understand the kinetics of the immune response to intracellular pathogens (influenza, malaria, TB, HIV), pathways of differentiation of CD8 T cell responses to viral infections (LCMV, influenza), and efficiency of immune responses to intracellular pathogens such Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), Influenza, Listeria monocytogenes (LM), Simian and Human immunodeficiency viruses (SIV and HIV). We have been using mathematical models (mainly based on ODEs) to estimate rates of migration of immune cells to different organs in mice and humans from experimental data. We also have been investigating how pathogens evolve within (and between) hosts to avoid immunity and how such evolutionary interplay between the pathogen and the host may result in disease. Particular topics we are currently interested in include

• Kinetics of CD8 T cell responses to intracellular pathogens such as HIV

• Pathways of effector and memory CD8 T cell differentiation in acute infections

• Immune response to malaria, both liver stage and blood stage malaria

• Within-host dynamics and evolution of HIV in response to immune response

• Modeling lymphocyte recirculation in the whole body

• Viral evolution within hosts in response to immunity

• Determining levels of memory CD8 T cells required for protection against an infection