Physician Investigator (NonCl) Nephrology, Mass General Research Institute

Associate Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School

Assistant Physician Medicine-Nephrology, Massachusetts General Hospital

MD New York University 1975

arachidonate 5-lipoxygenase; cytochrome p-450 enzyme system; leukotriene b4; leukotrienes; mixed function oxygenases; nuclear envelope The overall focus of my laboratory is to understand signal integration and macromolecular organization in cells of the immune system, and how these processes are linked to control the amplification of the immune response. In inflammatory diseases of the kidney, and in all immune disease, myeloid cells and lymphocytes are exposed to a large number of "kinase-based" signals from cytokines, interleukins, and growth factors, and also to signals from G-protein coupled receptors such as those for leukotrienes and chemokines. These combinations change, depending on the microenvironment of the cells. Each of these receptors engage a variety of intracellular pathways to allow these cells to perform the appropriate function in tissue environments. We focus on how cells integrate signaling responses between these different pathways, with the goal of identifying how cellular organization translates into defined biological phenotypes in health and disease. Our long term goal is to apply this knowledge to human immune and inflammatory diseases. We are focusing on three projects that relate to the amplification of biological responses in myeloid cells, including dendritic cells, mast cells, monocytes, and neutrophils.