AGING · IMMUNITY · VACCINES

Understanding how past experiences shape the future of our immune system.

Our immune system is shaped by experiences accumulated over the lifespan—from infections and vaccinations to inflammation. We study how these experiences leave lasting cellular and molecular imprints that alter the immune state and future responses. We combine systems immunology, single-cell multiomics, and experimental models to uncover these mechanisms.

Explore our research → Work with us ↗
Immune experiences shape an evolving immune state that influences future immunity

RESEARCH

We study immunity across scales.

From chromatin and transcriptional programs inside individual cells to immune responses across tissues and people.

01
Immune aging across the lifespan showing lifelong exposures and changes in innate immunity

INNATE IMMUNE AGING

How does aging reshape innate immune cells?

We investigate age-associated changes in monocytes, dendritic cells, and hematopoietic progenitors, with particular focus on inflammatory and epigenetic programs.

02
Inflammatory exposures reprogram innate immune cells and progenitors, leading to persistent altered innate immune states

CUMULATIVE INFLAMMATORY MEMORY

How does a lifetime of inflammatory exposures reprogram innate immunity?

We study how repeated inflammatory exposures reprogram innate immune cells and their progenitors, resulting in durably altered baseline immune states.

03
Different baseline innate immune states leading to different vaccine responses

ALTERED VACCINE IMMUNITY

How do altered baseline immune states affect vaccine responses?

We study how alterations in innate immunity during aging affect vaccine responses and shape the magnitude and quality of protective immunity.

OUR APPROACH

Connecting molecular mechanisms to human immunity.

Our work integrates high-dimensional human systems immunology with perturbation and functional studies, allowing us to move between discovery to mechanism and biological significance, and ultimately towards strategies that improve immune function.

1.Observe in humansHuman cohorts · Systems immunology · Immune profiling
2.Resolve molecular statesSingle-cell · Epigenome · Transcriptome · Proteome
3.Model relevant biologyHuman tissue models · Animal models
4.Perturb the system to establish mechanismVaccination · Genetic manipulation · Pharmacological perturbation
5.Develop strategies to improve immune functionAdjuvants · Immune modulation · Pharmacological intervention

SELECTED WORK

Featured articles.

View all publications →

SYSTEMS IMMUNOLOGY · COVID-19

Systems biological assessment of immunity to mild versus severe COVID-19 infection in humans

Science · 2020

Systems-level profiling revealed distinct immune programs associated with mild and severe COVID-19, linking dysregulated innate immune responses with disease severity.

Read paper ↗

SYSTEMS VACCINOLOGY · mRNA

Systems vaccinology of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in humans

Nature · 2021

Read paper ↗

VACCINES · ADJUVANTS

A comparative immunological assessment of multiple clinical-stage adjuvants for the R21 malaria vaccine in nonhuman primates

Science Translational Medicine · 2024

Read paper ↗

OUR TEAM

Curious people asking difficult questions.

We bring together immunology, multiomics, computation, and intuition to understand how the human immune system changes across the lifespan.

Meet the lab →

LAB NEWS

What’s happening.

New grant supports our work on immune aging

Prabhu receives the New Investigator Award from the Arizona Biomedical Research Center to investigate how aging reprograms innate immunity, contributing to inflammaging.

New grant supports our work on innate immune memory

We are excited to receive new NIAID funding to investigate cumulative reprogramming of the innate immune system by repeated immune stimulation.

Congratulations Andrew!

Andrew received his T32 for the second year to continue his work on human innate immune aging.

Andrea is a Yale Biomed AMGEN scholar

Congratulations on being selected for this prestigious fellowship. Have a great summaer at Yale.

Congratulations Andrea!

Andrea received the Galileo Circle Scholarship and the 2026 CBC Outstanding Biochemistry Junior Award. Way to go, Andrea!

Congratulations Andrew!

Andrew receives the Outstanding Graduate Research in Translational Science Award at the Hallmarks of Aging research forum, The University of Arizona.

JOIN THE LAB

Interested in joining us?

We welcome conversations with students, trainees, collaborators, and scientists interested in aging, immunity and vaccines.

Get in touch ↗