Faculty in NYU Langone’s Translational Immunology Center conduct research across all areas of basic and translational immunology. Major topics include host–microbe interactions, general mechanisms of immune responses, autoimmune diseases, sterile inflammation, and tumor immunology.

We offer extensive research resources to investigators at NYU Langone, including computational biology support for immunology research and immunology-specific reagents to support high-dimensional experiments, such as immune profiling of tissues using CODEX panels that were pre-validated by the Translational Immunology Center.

Faculty laboratories investigating host–microbe interactions and infectious disease include those led by Ken H. Cadwell, PhD; Meike Dittman, PhD; Ramin Herati, MD; Ian J. Mohr, PhD; Ana M. Rodriguez Fernandez, PhD; Mark J. Mulligan, MD; Victor J. Torres, PhD; and Jeffrey N. Weiser, MD.

Faculty laboratories investigating general mechanisms of immune responses include those led by Stefan Feske, MD; Kamal M. Khanna, PhD; Sergei B. Koralov, PhD; Juan J. Lafaille, PhD; David E. Levy, PhD; Dan R. Littman, MD, PhD; Amanda W. Lund, PhD; Shruti Naik, PhD; Mark R. Philips, MD; Boris Reizis, PhD; Susan R. Schwab, PhD; Jane Skok, PhD; and Edward Y. Skolnik, MD.

Faculty laboratories investigating autoimmune diseases include those led by Jill P. Buyon, MD; Bruce N. Cronstein, MD; Timothy Niewold, MD; and Gregg Silverman, MD.

Faculty laboratories investigating sterile inflammation include those led by Jeffrey S. Berger, MD; Edward A. Fisher, MD, PhD, MPH; Kathryn J. Moore, PhD; Bhama Ramkhelawon, PhD; and Thomas M. Wisniewski, MD.

Faculty laboratories investigating tumor immunology include those led by Iannis Aifantis, PhD; Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD; Michelle Krogsgaard, PhD; Thales Y. Papagiannakopoulos, PhD; Jun Wang, PhD; and Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD.

Translational Immunology Technologies

Our scientists use cutting-edge technologies to analyze the immune system, with particular emphasis on emerging high-dimensional technologies such as multiparameter flow cytometry and single-cell sequencing.

These technologies and innovative tools for their computational analysis are being developed by multiple faculty, including Adriana Heguy, PhD; Kelly V. Ruggles, PhD; Neville Sanjana, PhD; Aristotelis Tsirigos, PhD; and Itai Yanai, PhD; and implemented at NYU Langone’s Cytometry and Cell Sorting Laboratory, Genome Technology Center, and Applied Bioinformatics Laboratories, the New York Genome Center, and other facilities.

Of particular relevance to translational immunology research are the following facilities.

Immune Monitoring Laboratory

Led by Sara Borghi, PhD, NYU Langone’s Immune Monitoring Laboratory offers support and guidance on a wide variety of advanced immunological techniques such as high-dimensional flow/mass cytometry and single-cell transcriptome/phenotype analysis alone (CITE-Seq) or combined with antigen receptor repertoire analysis and other advanced features (ECCITE-Seq). It also offers instruments and experimental support for multiplexed analyte detection (Luminex) and single-cell functional analysis (IsoPlexis).

Experimental Pathology Research Laboratory

Led by Cynthia Loomis, MD, PhD, NYU Langone’s Experimental Pathology Research Laboratory offers access to advanced tissue analysis platforms including the Vectra multi-spectral imaging system and the PhenoCycler system for CODEX high-dimensional immunochemistry.

History of Immunology at NYU

Immunology research at NYU has a long history featuring multiple outstanding scientists. Michael Heidelberger, who is widely considered a “father of immunochemistry” for his role in characterizing antigen–antibody interactions, worked at NYU from 1964 until his death in 1991. Zoltan Ovary joined NYU as a faculty member in 1959, where he made critical early discoveries in the mechanism of anaphylaxis. Jeanette Thorbecke worked at NYU from 1957 until her death in 2001; she made major contributions to the study of immune responses and was elected a president of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) in 1989–90.

Baruj Benacerraf shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980 for the discovery of the MHC complex. Benacerraf worked at NYU from 1956 to 1968, where he also recruited and trained many outstanding immunologists. One of Benacerraf’s trainees at NYU was William E. Paul, who made fundamental discoveries in the mechanisms of allergy and was a president of the AAI from 1986 to 1987. Other trainees of Benacerraf included Ruth Nussenzweig and Victor Nussenzweig, MD, PhD, who remained at NYU throughout their careers and made major contributions to the fight against malaria.

Jan T. Vilček, MD, PhD, joined NYU in 1965 and performed groundbreaking research on cytokines such as TNF-alpha. He proceeded to develop Remicade, the first antibody against TNF-alpha that revolutionized the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

Current immunology faculty at NYU include many distinguished researchers such as Dan R. Littman, MD, PhD, who was president of the AAI from 2015 to 2016.