John E Connolly

Biography

  My interests lie in establishing a productive translational research program focusing on Dendritic Cell (DC) based immunotherapy. DCs form a critical link between the innate and adaptive immune response. During infection, DCs recognize and capture invading pathogens. The innate immune recognition of these pathogens drives DCs down a specific path of maturation. These mature, specialized DCs are then able to polarize the adaptive response toward distinct antipathogenic effector states, such as Th1, Th2 or Th17. Recently, research has indicated that in addition to inducing immune responses, polarized DCs play a critical role in maintaining self-tolerance. My primary research goals are directed toward understanding the role of human dendritic cell subsets in the induction of immunity and tolerance and exploiting this knowledge for the generation of novel vaccines.

Research Interest

   Molecular and Cell Biology