The mammalian immune system is an important evolutionary defense mechanism against viral and microbial infections relying upon pattern recognition receptors to detect foreign pathogens by recognition of pathogen associated molecular patterns. Importantly, cells of the innate immune system utilize these receptors such as Toll-like receptors and retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-like receptors to detect pathogens, elicit a signal transduction cascade, and induction of interferon stimulated genes to combat this invasion.
Stephen is interested in employing a systems-based approach, which will integrate a series of functional genomics analyses to identify novel molecular factors in RIG-I-dependent type-I interferon signaling. Identification of these signaling members will provide the basis for further dissection of the complex molecular relationships in the RIG-I signaling pathway and elucidate the mechanistic and physiological cellular responses that occur in HIV and influenza viral infections.