Physician Investigator (Cl) Infectious Disease, Mass General Research Institute

Associate Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School

Associate Physician Infectious Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital

Associate Member Broad Institute

MD Baylor College of Medicine 1996

PhD Baylor College of Medicine 1994

antigens, cd82; aspergillus fumigatus; beta-glucans; candida albicans; cryptococcosis; cryptococcus neoformans; histocompatibility antigens class i; histocompatibility antigens class ii; immunity, innate; kangai-1 protein; lectins, c-type; lysosomes; optical tweezers; phagosomes; spores, fungal; toll-like receptor 9

My research interests lie at the intersection between pathogenic fungal organisms and the immune system. The first line of defense against these pathogens is phagocytic cells including neutrophils and macrophages. In addition to neutralization, these cells place these fungal organisms in membrane-delimited compartments termed phagosomes. We use fungal pathogens of clinical importance including Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans as the model pathogens to study phagosome formation and maturation. Using live cell imaging with spinning disk confocal microscopy, we visualize primary macrophages and its responses to exposure to fungi in real time using fluorescently-tagged proteins of the endocytic pathway and the antigen processing and presentation machinery. We examine the role of Dectin-1, LC-3 (member of the autophagy family of proteins) Toll-like receptors and members of the tetraspanin family and their effects on phagosomal maturation