NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series

Autoantigens and autoimmunity: a bedside to bench and back again story

Noncoding RNAs play critical roles in the metabolism of all cells. The Wolin laboratory studies how noncoding RNAs function, how cells recognize and degrade defective noncoding RNAs, and how failure to degrade these RNAs affects cell function and contributes to human disease. Their studies revealed new mechanisms by which defective RNAs are targeted for degradation and new classes of noncoding RNAs. Most recently, their work has contributed to a novel theory for how the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus may be triggered in genetically susceptible individuals.

Cytokine interference in immunity to infection

Dr. O'Garra studies the signals that control our immune systems, to understand how they respond to diseases such as tuberculosis and what goes wrong when they damage healthy cells.

Mitochondrial Behavior

The research in the Nunnari laboratory is devoted to understanding how the behavior of mitochondria is controlled in cells. Specifically, we are focused on two fundamental problems. The first is how the structure of mitochondria is established and maintained within cells. We are currently elucidating the molecular mechanisms that underlie mitochondrial division and fusion. Our second area of interest is on understanding how the mitochondrial genome is organized and faithfully segregated within the organelle.