Roni Nowarski, PhD

Brigham And Women's Hospital

Academic Titles

Assistant Professor, Immunology, Harvard Medical School

Assistant Professor, Neurology, Harvard Medical School

Research Program Affiliation

Member, Cancer Immunology

Research Abstract

My laboratory studies the crosstalk between tissue and immune cells and the principles governing tissue regulation of immunity and inflammation. The questions we pursue are grounded in understanding how immune regulation within tissues controls host susceptibility to infection and autoimmune disease. A special emphasis of the lab is to elucidate the mechanisms whereby tissue structural cells and the tissue extracellular matrix participate in protective and pathogenic immune responses. We employ various models of systemic and local inflammation to interrogate common and tissue-specific mechanisms of immune regulation, with the goal of translating our findings to new therapeutic approaches. We have recently identified the role of the inflammatory cytokine IL-18 in mediating neuronal protection against intestinal bacterial infection, while, in contrast, promoting the breakdown of the intestinal epithelial barrier in inflammatory bowel disease. In addition, we identified extracellular matrix proteins that are essential for eliciting macrophage protective immunity to bacterial infection during sepsis.