We focus on biochemistry and molecular biology of the human inflammatory response and its control.
Main achievements include the following discoveries:
- Potent activation of the stress response kinase PKR by short intragenic RNA elements, resulting in eIF2α phosphorylation, controls expression of the key inflammatory cytokine genes encoding immune interferon and tumor necrosis factor at mRNA translation and splicing, respectively, and is used more widely within the human genome, in particular, by the human globin genes;
- Pro-inflammatory signaling leading to a lethal inflammatory cytokine storm during infections is regulated - and can be contained - through a novel checkpoint, the homodimer interfaces of the principal costimulatory receptors. A therapeutic molecule is currently advancing in a Phase 3 clinical trial against polymicrobial sepsis. Novel molecules that protect broadly from lethal infections are being designed and researched.
