Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Itch biology and sensory neuroimmunology
The Kim Lab builds upon the conceptual framework that itch represents fundamental paradigm of neuroimmune sensation and inflammation to unveil the inter-organ circuitry in the periphery.
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Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Itch biology and sensory neuroimmunology
Brian Kim, M.D. is the Sol and Clara Kest Professor of Dermatology, Vice Chair of Research, Site Chair Mount Sinai West and Morningside, Director of the Mark Lebwohl Center for Neuroinflammation and Sensation. Dr. Kim received his M.D. from the University of Washington, was a HHMI-NIH Scholar, completed residency in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a Master of Translational Research (MTR). He has >150 peer-reviewed publications, multiple NIH grants, designed pivotal clinical trials that led to novel FDA-approved treatments, and is an inventor of itch-centered technologies. He holds a patent for the use of JAK inhibitors for chronic itch. He is on the editorial board for Cell Reports Medicine, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, section editor for Journal of Immunology and on the board of reviewing editors for eLife. Dr. Kim’s research focuses on mechanisms that underlie skin inflammation and the sensation of itch as a fundamental, broad, model paradigm of neuroimmunology. A major finding of the Kim lab is that a subset of itch-specific neurons is a neurophysiologic extension of type 2 immune responses. Using the skin as a model organ, a major focus of the Kim Lab is to understand the precise mechanisms by which these immune cells traffic towards sensory neurons, the proinflammatory programs imprinted on the nervous system, and the ability of these neurons to influence inflammation.
Weill Cornell Medicine
Barrier immunology and mucosal neuroinflammation
The goal of the Artis Lab is to understand the regulatory mechanisms that control immune cell homeostasis at the body’s barrier surfaces. By employing diverse models of microbial colonization, pathogen infection, and chronic inflammation, the Artis lab examines how mammalian host genetics and signals derived from commensal microbial communities can influence innate and adaptive immune responses in the skin, lung, and intestine.
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Weill Cornell Medicine
Barrier immunology and mucosal neuroinflammation
Dr. David Artis, Ph.D., holds the position of the Michael Kors Professor of Immunology in the Department of Medicine and is also a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Cornell University in New York, NY. Additionally, he serves as the Director of the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and the Director of the Friedman Center for Nutrition and Inflammation.
He completed his doctoral research on the regulation of immunity and inflammation in the intestine at the University of Manchester, UK. Dr. Artis then received the Wellcome Trust Prize Traveling Fellowship for his post-doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania, where he continued researching the regulation of immune responses at barrier surfaces. In 2005, he joined the faculty at University of Pennsylvania and became a Professor of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine.
In 2014, Dr. Artis was recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) at Cornell University in New York City, where he assumed the positions of the inaugural Michael Kors Professor in Immunology and the Director of the Jill Roberts Institute for IBD Research. Subsequently, he took on the role of the inaugural Director of the Friedman Center for Nutrition and Inflammation, launching the Friedman Center at WCM.
Dr. Artis’ research focuses on dissecting the pathways that regulate innate and adaptive immune cell function, as well as host-microbiota interactions at barrier surfaces in the context of health and disease. Using multidisciplinary approaches, including single nucleus sequencing, untargeted metabolomics, CRISPR targeting of the microbiota, and chemo- and optogenetic tools to manipulate the nervous system, Dr. Artis’ team dissects the cellular and molecular pathways that control the gut-brain axis. A major aspect of his research is the clinical translation of findings in pre-clinical models into patient-based studies of immune-mediated diseases.
Dr. Artis has published over 180 peer-reviewed primary and review papers with an H-index of 94 and more than 44,000 citations. He has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2004 and also receives support from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, and the Paul G. Allen Foundation. Dr. Artis has received Investigator Awards from the American Association of Immunology, the International Cytokine Society, and Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, including the Colyton Prize, the William E. Paul Award for Outstanding Research, the Stanley Cohen Prize, and the AAI-BD Biosciences Investigator Award.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Myeloid biology & sensory function
The objective of the Merad Lab is to harness our understanding of the innate immune system to develop novel therapies against cancer and inflammatory diseases. The Merad Lab focuses on the biology of dendritic cells and macrophages that reside in cancer tissues and inflammatory lesions to understand whether specific defects in these cells contribute to disease pathogenesis and whether dendritic cells and macrophage defects could be restored to cure cancer and inflammatory disease.
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Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Myeloid biology & sensory function
Miriam Merad, M.D., Ph.D. is the Chair of the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy, Director of the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Director of the Mount Sinai Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC).
Dr. Merad is an internationally acclaimed physician-scientist and a leader in the fields of dendritic cell and macrophage biology with a focus on their contribution to human diseases. Dr. Merad identified the tissue-resident macrophage lineage and revealed its distinct role in organ physiology and pathophysiology. She established the contribution of this macrophage lineage to cancer progression and inflammatory diseases and is now working on developing novel macrophage-targeted therapies for these conditions. In addition to her work on macrophages, Dr. Merad is known for her work on dendritic cells, which control adaptive immunity. She identified a new subset of dendritic cells, now considered a key antiviral and antitumor immunity target.
Dr. Merad leads the Precision Immunology Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine (PrIISM) to bring immunology discoveries to the clinic. PrIISM integrates immunological research programs with synergistic expertise in biology, medicine, technology, physics, mathematics, and computational biology to enhance our understanding of human immunology. She also founded the Human Immune Monitoring Center at Mount Sinai, one of the world’s most sophisticated research centers, which uses cutting-edge single-cell technology to understand the contribution of immune cells to major human diseases or treatment responses.
Dr. Merad has authored more than 200 primary papers and reviews in high-profile journals. Her work has been cited several thousand times. She receives generous funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her research on innate immunity and its contribution to human disease and belongs to several NIH consortia. She is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the recipient of the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology. She is the President of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). In 2020, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her contributions to the field of immunology.
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Lymphocyte biology and visceral neuroimmunology
The Littman Lab studies how information from the environment is relayed to cells of the immune system and how this is manifested in homeostatic processes as well as in pathological conditions. The Littman Lab focuses on T-cell development, microbiota-immune system interactions, molecular pathologies, and neuro-immune interactions. Elucidation of these mechanisms will help us to understand how normal protective immune responses differ from pathogenic ones that result in inflammation and autoimmune disease.
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NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Lymphocyte biology and visceral neuroimmunology
Dan Littman, M.D., Ph.D., laboratory has made multiple contributions towards our understanding of mechanisms that promote immune system development and roles in physiological homeostasis, particularly through interactions with microbiota and with cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems. He received Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, and was Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, before joining NYU, where he is the Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Littman is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, past president of the American Association of Immunologists, and recipient of several scientific awards, including the Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine, the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic Immunology, and the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Sciences.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Visceral neuroimmunology
The Hu Lab aims to understand how different types of neurons in the interoceptive signaling pathways are engaged in bi-directional communication between the visceral organs and the central nervous system. They also investigate how these neurons interact locally with immune cells and epithelial cells to maintain immune homeostasis and how disruption of these signaling processes causes neuroimmune disorders.
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Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Visceral neuroimmunology
Dr. Hongzhen Hu received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences under the guidance of Jackie Wood from Ohio State University in 2014. He completed postdoctoral training with Nobel Laureate Ardem Patapoutian at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation and the Scripps Research Institute. He joined the Departments of Neuroscience and Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) in 2023. Dr. Hu also held faculty positions at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and UTHealth Houston before joining ISMMS.
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Tissue memory
The Naik Lab studies the dynamic interactions between immune cells, epithelial cells, and microbes in barrier tissues that interface with the environment such as the skin, lungs, and gut. The Naik Lab navigates these complex biological systems with an interdisciplinary approach that draws from the fields of immunology, microbiology, stem cell and developmental biology, and cancer biology. As such, the lab focuses on 3 major areas of research: 1) Inflammation, tissue regeneration and cancer, 2) host-microbe interactions, and 3) early in life immunity.
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NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Tissue memory
Dr. Shruti Naik, Ph.D., holds the position of Associate Professor in Pathology, Medicine and Dermatology and also serves as the Associate Director of the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Dr. Naik is an international leader in immunology and regeneration. The Naik Lab focuses on inflammatory diseases such as Psoriasis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease, that collectively affect over 5% of the population. Her research examines how inflammation impacts tissues, including long-lived somatosensory neurons, and alters their molecular makeup and long-term function. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies to study mechanisms of how immune cells communicate with tissues in health and disease, Dr. Naik seeks to develop curative therapies that halt inflammatory damage and rejuvenate organs at the cellular and molecular level.
Dr. Naik earned her B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Maryland College Park and subsequently obtained her Ph.D. through the University of Pennsylvania-NIH graduate partnership program under the mentorship of Drs. Yasmine Belkaid and Julie Segre. She further honed her expertise as a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Rockefeller University in New York City.
In addition to her outstanding research contributions, Dr. Naik is a strong advocate for increasing diversity in science. She is also committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists and physicians. Her involvement extends to her role as an Executive Producer of the film Six Degrees from Science. Dr. Naik has received numerous accolades for her groundbreaking research and advocacy including the Regeneron Award for Creative Innovation, the L’Oréal For Women in Science Award, the Damon Runyon Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientist, the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, the International Takeda International Innovators in Science Award, Pew-Stewart Scholar, NIH Directors Innovator Award DP2, Packard Fellow, Burrows Welcome PATH award, and is a NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Investigator.
Yale School of Medicine
Vagal interoception in basic organ functions
The Chang Lab uses state-of-the-art molecular, genetic, and imaging approaches including single-cell omics, virus-based anatomical mapping, in vivo imaging, optogenetics, and chemogenetics to reveal how immune cells interact with various sensory and motor neurons within visceral organs and the underlying physiological functions of diverse peripheral neuro-immune circuits.
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Yale School of Medicine
Vagal interoception in basic organ functions
Rui Chang received his B.S. in Biological Sciences and Biotechnology from Tsinghua University, China in 2005. He then studied sensory transduction with Emily Liman and earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Southern California in 2011. He completed his postdoctoral training with Stephen Liberles at Harvard Medical School, where he investigated how body sensory cues are monitored by the brain through the vagus nerve, and how these internal signals regulate whole body physiology. He joined both the Department of Neuroscience and the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Yale University School of Medicine in January 2018.