Richard DiPaolo, Ph.D.
Professor and Interim Chair
Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Education
Ph.D.: Washington University School of Medicine
Postdoctoral Fellowship: NIAID, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Research Interests
The lab studies how immune cells and cytokines contribute to diseases such as autoimmunity
and cancer. We use this information to develop and test new strategies and immunotherapeutic
approaches to treat autoimmunity and prevent cancer. The cell types we have focused
on are CD4+ T regulatory cells (Tregs) and autoreactive CD4+ T cells. The diseases
we have tested new immunotherapies include: Type 1 diabetes, autoimmune gastritis,
and gastric cancer. The lab also uses deep sequencing of T cell receptor sequences
in biological samples to develop diagnostics for infections, vaccines, and disease.
We use several cutting-edge technologies, including: preclinical mouse models of human
diseases, 3-D organoid cultures, whole exome and single cell RNA sequencing, and advance
bioinformatics to better understand the pathophysiology of autoimmune diseases, cancers,
infections and vaccines.