NIH Director's Seminar Series: Exploring the functions of skin as an immunological interface
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The June lecture in the NIH Director's Seminar Series will be presented by IRP senior investigator Keisuke Nagao, Ph.D.
The skin is a vital barrier against environmental stressors such as thermal changes, sunlight, allergens, toxins, and microbes. An array of cell types including epithelia, fibroblasts, neurons, and vasculature act together to ensure its function. Immune cells have emerged as orchestrators of skin biology that collectively serve to reinforce the barrier against external threats. The composition and function of immune cells are constantly tuned by skin structures, microbial and inflammatory stimuli. In turn, skin immune cells engage in an active dialogue with the tissue to regulate the microbiota, limit microbial invasion and facilitate tissue repair.
In this seminar, Dr. Nagao will introduce the cell-cell crosstalk that mediates immunological and microbial homeostasis in the skin and how disruption of these communications leads to pathological inflammation such as atopic inflammation and inflammatory alopecia, as well as soft-tissue infection by skin pathobionts. Dr. Nagao will also introduce his lab's recent efforts to gain insight into the disease pathophysiology of the intractable vasculopathy known as Degos disease.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, June 6, 2023