FACULTY

The faculty included in this list are the members of the Graduate Program in Immunology. Any of the individuals listed may serve as laboratory rotation mentors and thesis advisors for Immunology Graduate Program students.

Rafeul Alam, MD, PhD - Signal transduction mechanism of eosinophil and T cells, and signaling mechanism of asthma

Scott Alper, PhD - Genetic control of TLR signaling pathways

Jeffrey Bennett, PhD - Neuro-immunology; mechanisms of neural and glial responses to me neuro-inflammatory disease

Leslie Berg, PhD- Specializes in understanding how T cells develop and help fight infection

Eric Clambey, PhD - My research focuses on the dynamic interface between the immune system, inflammation and tissue repair. In particular, my lab studies how T cells, pivotal cells of the immune system, influence the balance between health and disease at mucosal surfaces, including the lung and gastrointestinal tract. These studies focus on diverse contexts, ranging from anti-viral to anti-tumor immunity, with an emphasis on immunomodulatory approaches to limit infection and malignancy

Sarah Clark, PhD- Bacterial-driven immune modulation in the respiratory tract

Sean P. Colgan, PhD - Role of leukocytes, epithelium and hypoxia in inflammatory bowel disease

Shaodong Dai, PhD - Understanding the mechanisms of the metal containing ligands for alpha/beta TCRs from metal reactive human T cells

Howard W. Davidson, PhD - T and B cell responses to type 1 diabetes autoantigens in human and mouse

Eduardo Davila, PhD - Our long-term goals are to develop novel approaches for treating immunorefractory cancers and to develop predictive models and diagnostics to identify compounds that sensitize tumors to T cell-based therapies.

Kevin Deane, MD, PhD – Epidemiology of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Translational Research in RA Pathogenesis, Clinical Trials in RA Prevention

James DeGregori, PhD - Pathways and mechanisms that contribute to leukemia initiation and maintenance

Hans Dooms, PhD - T cell dysregulation and exhaustion in autoimmune disease. Identification of the pathways that enable autoreactive T cells to escape immune regulatory checkpoints and cause tissue damage in Systemic Sclerosis/Scleroderma and Type 1 Diabetes, with the goal of using this knowledge for the development of innovative immunotherapies. 

Kelly Doran, PhD - Studying host - pathogen interactions in the central nervous system (CNS) and the female reproductive during infection and colonization

Gregory P. Downey, MD - Acute Lung Injury and Repair, Epithelial Injury, Fibrosis, Chronic respiratory infections, asthma

Stephen Dreskin, MD, PhD - asthma, rhinitis, urticaria, sever food allergy, angioedema and immunodeficiency

Patricia Ernst, PhD - Epigenetic gene regulation in hematopoietic cells in the context of normal hematopoiesis, leukemogenesis and CAR T cell function. 

Christopher Evans, PhD - Mucins in innate defense: determination of their immunomodulatory roles through direct activation of leukocyte glycan receptors

Brian Freed, PhD - Immunogenetics

Rachel S. Friedman, PhD - Dynamics of immune activation vs. tolerance in peripheral tissues during homeostasis and disease; Immune response in the islets during type 1 diabetes

Terry J. Fry, MD- CD4 CAR-T cells using the OTII model

Mayumi Fujita, MD, PhD - Role of IL-37 in adaptive immunity and cancer immunosuppression

Laurent Gapin, PhD - Mechanisms of iNKT cell development and antigen recognition

Andrew Getahun, PhD - Axis Tunes PI3K Activity to Control Expression of Recombination Activating Genes in Early B Cell Development

Ronald G. Gill, PhD - Transplantation of pancreatic cells as a treatment for insulin-dependent diabetes

Magdalena "Magda" Gorska - The goal of our lab is to delineate mechanisms by which maternal factors and early-life environmental exposures influence offspring immune system and their predisposition to allergic diseases.

Jenna Guthmiller, PhD - Factors that promote or limit the induction of broadly protective humoral immunity against influenza viruses and how previous virus exposures shape antibody and viral evolution  

Kathryn Haskins, PhD - Immunoregulation in autoimmune diabetes; pancreatic beta-cell autoantigens

Peter Henson, PhD - Innate immunity, inflammation and apoptotic cell recognition

Katie Hisert, MD, PhD - Host pathogen interactions between macrophages and bacteria in the lungs during chronic airways diseases, such as cystic fibrosis

V. Michael Holers, MD - Complement-mediated tissue injury; preclinical autoimmune disease pathogenesis

Elena Hsieh, MD- Mechanistic and translational questions in human immunology using high-dimensional single-cell mass cytomerty and ex-vivo cellular manipulation

Christene Huang, PhD - Translational research focused on transplantation immunology and immune tolerance mechanisms to improve outcomes in transplant patients 

Hua Huang, MD, 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- Lymphocyte trafficking and cell-cell interactions in autoimmunity and cancer

Edward N. Janoff, MD - Mucosal immunity; HIV transmission and vaccine; pneumococcal infections and vaccine; B cell regulation

William J. Janssen, MD - Roles of monocytes and macrophages as regulators of inflammation and tissue repair in the lung

Sana Karam, MD, PhD - Dr. Karam’s laboratory is focused on basic and translational research related to head and neck and CNS cancer. We use molecular, cellular, and preclinical animal models to understand mechanisms of tumor response to radiation treatment.

Ross Kedl, PhD- Intersection between innate and adaptive signals which lead to potent cellular immunity; exploration of how these signals might be manipulated for vaccine development and design

Marijke Keestra-Gounder, PhD- Elucidating pathways of innate immunity that can distinguish harmless microbes from pathogens, thereby enabling the host to mount responses that are commensurate with the threat

Elizabeth J. Kovacs, PhD - Overall focus: The effects of advanced age, alcohol intoxication, and radiation exposure on inflammatory responses after injury or infection

Kristine A. Kuhn, MD, PhD - Microbiome and mucosal immunity in the development of autoimmune diseases

Laurel L. Lenz, PhD– Mechanisms for regulation of innate immune cell function and inflammation; impact of these in the context of microbial infections and in other disease contexts; and therapeutic implications

Philippa “Pippa” Marrack, PhD- T cell development; T-cell responses and death

Siddhartha Mitra, PhD - The Mitra lab brings together three distinct fields of research: Immuno-Oncology, neurodevelopment, and brain tumor oncology. The lab focuses on the mechanisms of immune-surveillance in brain tumors by cells of the the innate immune system

Thomas E. “Tem” 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

Maki Nakayama, MD, PhD - To understand the mechanism how anti-beta cell autoimmunity is initiated, my laboratory focus on the tri-molecular complex consisting of antigen, major histocompatibility complex (MHC), and T cell receptor (TCR), which could be a key component for the development of type 1 diabetes

Paul Norman, PhD - The Norman lab researches immunogenetics, which is the study of polymorphic molecules that have critical roles during infection control, reproduction, cancer, and immune-mediated disease.

Kyla Ost, PhD - Interactions between commensal fungi and adaptive immune responses in the gut microbiome that impact fungal commensalism, fungal virulence, and inflammatory bowel disease  

Roberta Pelanda, PhD - Molecular mechanisms of B cell development and selection and the development of autoimmunity

Cristina Penaranda, PhD - Understanding bacterial persistent infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We use in vitro and in vivo models to uncover host and pathogen factors involved in disease pathogenesis.

Eric Pietras, PhD - In my own laboratory I am leading detailed, cutting-edge investigations of how inflammation 1) directs HSC fate decisions that reshape the blood system and participates in the establishment of homeostasis, 2) negatively impacts HSC and blood system function in the context of chronic inflammation.

Lee Reinhardt, PhD - The role and regulation of CD4+ T cell subsets and their cytokines in settings of type-2 immunity, malignancy, and autoinflammatory disease

David W.H. Riches, PhD - Basic mechanisms involved in the development lung inflammation and fibrosis

Mercedes Rincon, PhD - Areas of research are Role of p38 MAPK and GSK3β in T cell development and function as well as IL-6 as a key regulator of T cell immune response in inflammatory diseases and cancer.

Rosemary Rochford, PhD - Co-infections with and immune responses to human gammaherpesviruses and P. falciparum malaria

Mario L. Santiago, PhD - Innate host restriction and adaptive immunity against pathogenic retroviruses

David Schwartz, MD - Effects of microbiome on the innate immune system

James Scott-Browne, PhD - How T Cells recognize potentially harmful invaders

Dan Sherbenou, MD, PhD - I oversee a translational research laboratory focused on novel therapy development and optimization for multiple myeloma and will care for patients with myeloma and related plasma cell disorders of Colorado and adjoining areas.

Jill Slansky, PhD - Immune response to cancer

Mia Smith, DVM, PhD - Role of B cells in autoimmunity

Beth Tamburini, PhD - Understand the mechanisms behind antigen transfer from non-hematopoietic to hematopoietic cells in order to enhance protective immunity

Raul Torres, PhD- B cell development and antibody response, regulation of tumor immunity by lysophospholipids

Kenneth Tyler, MD- Our laboratory studies mechanisms of virus-induced CNS injury and the nature of CNS-specific host-inate immune responses using reoviruses, flaviviruses (West Nile, Japanese Encephalitis, Zika) in a variety of experimental systems including primary cell culture, ex vivo brain and spinal cord slices and mice

Linda F. van Dyk, PhD - Genetic and molecular approaches to infection and pathogenesis by lymphotropic herpesviruses

Andrés Vázquez-Torres, DVM, PhD - NOX2 and NOS2 dependent innate host responses of mononuclear phagocytes to intracellular protozoan and bacterial pathogens

Michael Verneris, MD - Developing cellular therapy to reduce leukemia recurrence by enhancing immune recovery and by more effectively treating sites of leukemia (with a newly developed method of bone marrow irradiation

David H. Wagner, Jr., PhD - Role of CD40 in Autoimmune Inflammation

Cara Wilson, MD - Host-microbe interactions in the gut mucosa, the role of mucosal inflammation in HIV pathogenesis and aging.

Gongyi Zhang, PhD- Structural and functional studies of proteins, epigenetics

Yuwen Zhu, PhD - The discovery of novel immunosuppressive pathways and their applications in cancer therapy.