Macrophages are the terminally differentiated derivative of the peripheral blood monocyte.
Together these two cell types play a major role in regulation of both humoral and cellular immune responses and as the primary line of defense against a number ofmicroorganisms. The main interest of my lab is in studying the molecular mechanisms which are responsible for the regulation of cytokine genes in macrophages and monocytes. The research is divided into two interrelated areas, transcriptional regulation and signal transduction. The overall goal is to understand how signals initiated at the cell surface by macrophage activating agents, such as LPS from gram negative bacteria, are communicated to the nucleus and induce cytokine gene expression. Currently we are characterizing how thesefactors interact to regulate gene expression.