Naeha Subramanian, Ph.D.

The Subramanian lab studies innate immune responses mediated by a class of intracellular sensors of pathogens and danger called the NOD-like receptors (NLRs) and their role in immune disease. A key aspect of our work is using unbiased systems biology approaches for combining information from multiple levels such as genes, proteins and whole cells to identify NLR signaling pathways and their regulation. Another major focus is on investigating the activation of inflammasomes, which are signaling complexes formed by some NLRs, and the role of sub-cellular structures such as mitochondria in regulation of inflammasome function. Our goal is to discern novel functions and regulatory mechanisms of NLRs, and ultimately harness this information for therapeutic modulation of NLR function in immune diseases.