Thomas R. Hawn, M.D., Ph.D.

The Hawn lab is investigating immunologic mechanisms of disease pathogenesis with an emphasis on genetic, cellular, and molecular studies of the human innate immune response.

Our laboratory examines why individuals have different susceptibility to infections and whether these insights can lead to novel treatment and vaccine strategies. We use several approaches to understand this question. First, we use ex vivo and in vitro immunologic, cellular and molecular assays to understand how innate immunity genes and their variants mediate a protective immune response to pathogens. We then pursue case-control human genetic studies to find associations of polymorphisms in innate immune response genes with disease susceptibility. The Hawn lab is using these methods to study the innate immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. leprae, and Legionella pneumophila.