Research Summary
Dr. Ting is the William Rand Kenan Professor of Genetics and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She is a molecular immunologist and a pioneer in innate immunity. Dr. Ting is distinguished by the breadth of her studies which include innate immunity, autoimmunity, neuroinflammation, cancer immunology, infectious diseases, and the microbiota. She discovered the roles of inflammasome proteins in the myeloid population in demyelination and remyelination, influenza infection, neuroinflammation, saturated fatty acid induced metabolic diseases, colitis, and colon cancer. In addition to the inflammasome NLRs, she was the first to identify NLRs that serve as negative regulators of inflammatory and cell signaling pathways such as NFk B, MAPK and STAT and the first to identify NLRs that intercept the RNA/DNA sensing pathway and to demonstrate DNA binding by an NLR protein. Finally, she has discovered important roles of multiple innate immune receptors in T cell mediated autoimmune diseases with EAE as a prime model. Her lab unexpectedly found that innate immune receptors have a T cell intrinsic function to directly affect adaptive immunity. More recently, her work has shown the importance of innate immune receptors in regulating B cells, including B regulatory cells. Her work has significant translational potential. She has identified innate immune pathways, microbiota and microbial metabolites that mitigate inflammation.
CGIBD Focus Area(s): Regeneration and Repair; Microbiome
Collaborators: Arthur, Carroll, Lemon, Miao, Sartor
