Many common diseases in modern societies are associated with an overactive innate immune system and chronic inflammation is part of the pathogenesis of the majority of non-communicable diseases.  Our major research aims are:

• We focus on deciphering the molecular mechanisms of innate immune receptor activation using pharmacologic, biochemical and structural approaches.
• We are particularly interested in understanding how innate receptors interact with their ligands leading to the most proximal signaling events.
• We study the mechanisms by which cells sense nucleic acids and sterile danger signals by intracellular multi-molecular signaling complexes, termed inflammasomes.
• We are investigating how innate immune activation contributes to the inflammatory responses in various conditions, such as atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic eye diseases as well as metabolic diseases.
• We perform a deep immune phenotyping analysis of the human immune system and perform functional genomics studies to elucidate novel mechanisms of immune activation and susceptibility to major inflammatory diseases.