Research Projects

Immune responses are initiated in lymphoid tissues such as the spleen and lymph nodes. Monocytes are polyvalent cells that can differentiate into inflammatory dendritic cells or macrophages following an injury or infection. How monocytes are recruited into the spleen or lymph nodes and contribute to protection from infection is not fully understood. We recently found that fibroblasts express chemokines responsible for the recruitment of monocytes. The proposed project will investigate if fibroblasts are responsible for the recruitment and differentiation of monocytes into lymphoid tissues following infection and how this impacts immune responses. For this, we will use a use a new animal model, viral infections, flow cytometry and confocal imaging.