Division of Protective Immunity

The broad mission of Protective Immunity is to leverage innovative experimental methodology, computational approaches, and molecular tools to better understand immune system development, immune response to microorganisms, and mucosal immunology.

Key projects in the Division, which is part of the Experimental Pathology Branch of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, focus on MHC class I- and class II-restricted antigen processing and presentation, ubiquitin ligase pathways that control immune cell function, the role of non-coding RNAs in innate immunity, the effects of mitochondria and energy consumption on adaptive immunity, the interplay between various bacterial pathogens, and the interactions between DNA-containing viruses and their hosts.