Research Programs
Cancer and Cancer Therapy
This cluster includes research on neural and immunological mechanisms in brain or peripheral cancers, as well as other cancer-related topics, such as immunity-related neurological complications from various types of cancers.
Research Topics: Neuroimmune pathways in cancers, CNS immune cells such as microglia in cancers, the neurological impact of anticancer immune checkpoints, and the brain-periphery axis in cancer pathogenesis.
Key Features: Developing novel cancer therapies including immunotherapies and chemotherapies that involve neuroimmunology.
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Central Nervous System Degeneration and Damage
This cluster incorporates research on the neuroimmunological mechanisms and therapeutic targets of central nervous system (CNS) degeneration or damage. This includes studies on how the immune system drives neurological damage in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disorders, chronic infections, and aging.
Research Topics: Neuroinflammation, neural cellular stress, microglia and other immune cells in the CNS, neuronal loss or injury, synaptic loss, neural circuit changes, axonal damage, demyelination, and spinal cord injury.
Key features: Understanding the molecular, cellular, and physiological processes and mediators in CNS degeneration and damage.
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Eating and Metabolic Disorders
This cluster covers research on the role of neuroimmune pathways in regulating or influencing metabolic balance, and how their dysfunction leads to eating and metabolic diseases. This will include research incorporating the neuroendocrine system, the hypothalamus, and their interactions with other neural systems that regulate metabolism.
Research Topics: Eating disorders, including anorexia and overeating; metabolic issues related to energy expenditure, nutrient utilization, and thermogenesis, hyperglycemia, and hormone desensitization in prediabetes and diabetes.
Key Features: Integrating neuroendocrinology, neuroscience, neurology, and psychiatry in studying metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes.
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Infectious Diseases and Autoimmunity
This cluster focuses on the neurological complications that result from infection or autoimmune diseases, as well as underlying immunological mechanisms. It also explores how the central nervous system is involved in regulating systemic immunity in response to pathogens.
Research Topics: Infections by HIV, coronavirus, and malaria; the pathogenesis involving microglia; and the blood-brain barrier pathology.
Key Features: Integrating research from animal models and patients to understand the neurological significance of infections.
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Innovative Technologies
This cluster focuses on developing new methods and technologies to increase research depth and scope in the area of neuroimmunology and inflammation.
Research Topics: Novel multi-omics approaches, large-scale genomic and epigenomic approaches, high-throughput macromolecular methodologies, systemic neuroimmune profiling, iPSC-induced CNS organoid and neural stem cell development, exosome phenotyping, brain MRI and other imaging methodologies, and neural network modeling and other computational models.
Key Features: Encompassing multiple disciplines and complimentary approaches to develop novel technologies for the focuses in this Institute.
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Psychiatric Disorders
This cluster focuses on the relationships between neuroimmune conditions and psychiatric health or disorders. An emphasis will be placed on untangling the neuroimmunological mechanisms involved in psychiatric disorders and conditions.
Research Topics: Neuroinflammation and depression, anxiety, suicide, schizophrenia, and autism; and psychiatric consequences of substance use disorders, and psychiatric outcomes of chronic infections and chronic neurological diseases.
Key Features: Emphasizing research—from clinical observations to mechanistic understandings—on causal factors and the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders.
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Sensory and Autonomic Disorders
This cluster investigates how neuroimmunological changes, including inflammation, affect neural sensory dysfunctions, such as hyperalgesia and loss of smell or taste, and autonomic nervous system dysfunctions that lead to various disorders and diseases.
Research Topics: Pain, hypertension, gastrointestinal disorders, bladder dysfunction, urogenital disorders, wound healing, and nerve dysfunctions in various other diseases.
Key Features: Understanding the commonly shared bases in many different types of diseases due to sensory dysfunction or autonomic dysregulation.
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Tissue Stem Cells and Central Nervous System Repair
Scientists in this cluster examine the role of neuroimmunology in neural stem cell identity, survival, differentiation, and function, and study how neural regeneration and repair are impacted by neuroinflammation and immune cells and signals such as immunokines from peripheral circulation.
Research Topics: Neural stem cells, neurogenesis, neural stem cell endocrine and paracrine, neural grafting, CNS organoids, neuronal and nerve regeneration, and remyelination.
Key Features: Developing novel cellular strategies in neural stem cell models to improve neural regeneration.
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