Immunology & Microbial Pathogenesis (IMP) Program

#KnowAboutMyScience: Blood stem cells can “remember” past infections and inflammation, leaving behind molecular marks that shape future immune responses and even contribute to disease. My current research is focused on tissue side. #BecomingAScientist: I have always been fascinated by how inflammatory diseases are triggered so differently in people by things like diet, stress, sleep, exercise, or aging. This variability in the immune system and how it shapes disease drew me to science. I started with immunology, then added epigenetics, and now study epithelial tissues like the skin and gut where inflammation often shows itself most clearly. #FunFact: I love capturing smiles through photography. I enjoy how different colors and light create unique feelings, and that creative perspective helps me think about how to present science. Jin Gyu Cheong, PhD Niec Lab National Postdoc Appreciation Week September 2025

Meet #MSKPostdoc Jin Gyu Cheong from the Niec Lab! He studies how blood stem cells “remember” inflammation - shaping future immune responses and fueling diseases like Crohn’s. He’s also exploring links to colitis from cancer immunotherapy. #NPAW2025🇰🇷

#BestPartOfScience: Learning to live with questions and walk beside uncertainty. Keep climbing toward understanding with others who are committed to the same journey, knowing that each peak is simply a place to begin again. #BecomingASceintist: Seeing loved ones face illness made me curious about how the body defends itself. I was drawn to the immune system for its complexity, and for what it reveals about resilience, timing, and care. #FunFuct: I spend time with my plants, watching small shifts, from a new leaf to how light shapes growth over time. They have taught me to notice patterns and respect the kind of timing that can't be forced. I also play video games, where the pace is faster, and failure is part of the process. You fall, rethink, and try again. Along the way, you meet teammates who challenge and support you. In science, I carry both rhythms with me. Xiao Huang, PhS Rudensky Lab National Postdoc Appreciation Week September 2025

Meet #MSKPostdoc Xiao Huang (@drxiaohuang.bsky.social) from the Rudensky Lab! Xiao investigates how different subsets of regulatory T (Treg) cells adapt to tissues and immune challenges to maintain immune balance in health and disease. #NPAW2025 🇨🇳

Low‐Input Assay for Transposase‐Accessible Chromatin Identifies Epigenetic Signatures of Liver Group 1 Innate Lymphoid Cells Assessing chromatin accessibility in rare cell populations within tissue remains a key challenge. To address this, we present a low-input ATAC workflow optimized for liver ILCs. The protocol is valid...

Working with rare immune populations? We describe an optimized low-input ATAC-seq workflow for tissue ILCs, allowing for reproducible epigenetic profiling. Technical report now out at EJI @EurJImmunol: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/.... Have a look!

Temporal and context-dependent requirements for the transcription factor Foxp3 expression in regulatory T cells - Nature Immunology Rudensky and colleagues demonstrate a context-dependent differential requirement for Foxp3 for Treg cell transcriptional and functional programs.

Congratulations to the lab of IMP faculty member Sasha Rudensky on their latest study! @mskcancercenter.bsky.social

National Academy of Medicine to Present Hamburg Award to Carl F. Nathan for Seminal Discoveries That Improve Understanding of Innate Immunity - NAM WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) today announced that Carl F. Nathan is the recipient of the 2025 David and Beatrix Hamburg Award for

Congratulations to JEM Editorial Board Co-Chair Carl Nathan on receiving the 2025 David & Beatrix Hamburg Award from @nam.edu for his fundamental work in improving understanding of #InnateImmunity:

It's been a great & productive summer, we had fantastic #undergraduates :) but September is HERE and we are looking for new #POSTDOCS - effective immediately! please spread the word and if interested - let us know! We are into #transcription #inflammation #epigenomics #NuclearReceptors #macrophages

The multi-kingdom cancer microbiome - Nature Microbiology This Review discusses what comprises the ‘cancer microbiome’, summarizing the studies on tumour-associated microbes, examining the evidence and assessing their impact on the disease.

The #cancer #microbiome: the facts, the myth, and our take on it- with @abdohlman.bsky.social , Xiangyu Pan and Laurence Zitvogel. Out now @natmicrobiol.nature.com just in time for the start of the academic year @wcm-imp.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Closing the 1st part of the #MSKPostdoc Symposium: Adriana Mujal, Kravis WiSE Fellow from the Sun lab, explores what drives natural killer (NK) cell activation across tissues. These immune warriors rapidly destroy infected or malignant cells - key to our body’s defense🛡️ #NPAW2025

Good news shouldn’t wait, but it’s been a hectic work-heavy summer. I am delighted and honored to be among the Kenneth Rainin Foundation 2025 Innovator Award Grantees. Thank you to @krfoundation.org for supporting our work.

krfoundation.org/news/health/...

krfoundation.org/our-work/hea...

Enkephalin-producing regulatory T cells in the skin restrain local inflammation through control of nociception Regulatory T cells curb noxious sensory signaling to dampen cutaneous inflammation, a neuromodulatory mechanism for immunosuppression.

After many years of work I’m so happy to share our work on #scienceimmunology on how Treg cells modulate nociception to dampen skin inflammation! My handle will make a lot more sense now!🕵🏻‍♀️

CGRP-related neuropeptide adrenomedullin 2 promotes tissue-protective ILC2 responses and limits intestinal inflammation - Nature Immunology Artis and colleagues show that enteric neurons produce CGRP-related ADM2 to promote intestinal tissue-protective functions in ILC2s.

Congratulations to IMP faculty member David Artis and his team on their new paper investigating how the neuropeptide adrenomedullin 2 promotes protective gut ILC2 responses and reduces inflammation, highlighting a novel neuro-immune circuit!

Fantastic to see two former IMP postdocs @thepenkpanther.bsky.social and @coraline-mly.bsky.social highlighted by JEM in this Viewpoint! #WomeninSTEM

TCF19 drives a broad transcriptional program that potentiates optimal innate and adaptive functions of antiviral NK cells - Nature Immunology Sun and colleagues report that the transcription factor TCF19 regulates calcium signaling and cell cycling progression in NK cells and is required for innate and adaptive NK cell responses to viral in...

Have a look at this new study by Dr. Celeste Dang in @natimmunol.nature.com showing an interesting new role for the transcription factor TCF19 in driving antiviral NK cell function. Congrats Celeste for driving this one to the finish line! @mskcancercenter.bsky.social

The 2025 Gilliam Fellows & Advisors | HHMI The Gilliam Fellows Program launches promising PhD students into impactful scientific research careers while fostering inclusive training environments.

Thrilled to share that I was selected for the @hhmi.org Gilliam Fellowship! Extremely grateful to my PI @justinperryphd.bsky.social and my lab mates (Jesús and Shasha) for their incredible support! Excited for many discoveries and outreach within @wcm-imp.bsky.social

www.hhmi.org/programs/gil...

Check out this nice highlight from @weillcornell.bsky.social

PD-1 is requisite for skin TRM cell formation and specification by TGFβ - Nature Immunology Anandasabapathy and colleagues show that the inhibitory receptor PD-1 impacts the specification of tissue-resident memory T cells in the skin.

Exciting first post! With @drshrutinaik.bsky.social and many others! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Human iPSC derived alveolar macrophages reveal macrophage subtype specific functions of itaconate in M. tuberculosis host defense M. tuberculosis must survive within multiple macrophage populations during infection, including alveolar macrophages (AM) and recruited inflammatory macrophages. In mice, itaconate, produced in macrop...

Happy to share the most recent preprint from the lab, the thesis work of Dr. Adam Krebs and a collaboration with many, including the Geissmann lab @mskcancercenter.bsky.social
Here is a short paper thread. #tuberculosis #macrophages 🦠
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

It's official. I'm happy to announce that I have been promoted to Associate Member @mskcancercenter.bsky.social. It is sincere when I say that this would not have been possible w/o the incredible work of the members of my lab. In fact, exciting news about them coming soon. Stay tuned.

Congratulations 2025 ICIS Young Investigators! - Biweekly newsletter of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society The International Cytokine & Interferon Society proudly announces these 2025 Young Investigator Award winners. The Sidney & Joan Pestka Graduate and Post-Graduate Awards, sponsored by PBL Assay Services Post-graduate awardee, Alexander Lercher, PhD, The Rockefeller University is currently an HFSP long-term fellow and Harvey L. Karp postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Charles M. Rice

🎉Huge congrats to Kathleen Mills, PhD, on being named a 2025 ICIS Young Investigator Awardee! Her success reflects the drive and excellence we see across our IMP students! You've done amazing work in the Hohl lab.👏We wish you the best, onward and upward! signals.cytokinesociety.org/2025/07/14/2...

Macrophage-derived oncostatin M repairs the lung epithelial barrier during inflammatory damage Tissue repair programs must function alongside antiviral immunity to restore the lung epithelial barrier following infection. We found that macrophage-derived oncostatin M (OSM) counteracted the patho...

🎉 Over the moon to share the first paper from my lab!! We discovered an unexpected role for the cytokine OSM in lung epithelial homeostasis and repair. 🧵 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Wonderful to catch up with two former @wcm-imp.bsky.social grad students at this @faseborg.bsky.social meeting! So proud of alum who are now faculty running their own labs- Priya Issuree (U Iowa) and Ruth Franklin @ruthfranklinlab.bsky.social (Harvard). Nothing makes a program director more happy!

We are so proud of Mergim for passing his quals! Definitely warrants lollipops advertising his favorite model antigen.

Congrats to IMP alum Virginia Pedicord on this wonderful distinction!!

🎓 Congrats to Dughan Ahimovic from the Josefowicz Lab on defending his thesis: "Deciphering the Histone Code for Immune Cell Development and Stimulation." His dedication and the lab’s collaborative spirit made this achievement possible! Congrats Dughan!👏🧬

🎓 Huge congratulations to Kathleen Mills from the @fungalspore.bsky.social Hohl Lab on successfully defending her thesis: "Epithelial-Immune Cell Crosstalk Orchestrates Pulmonary Immunity to Aspergillus fumigatus" Her strong, dedicated presence in the program will truly be missed! 💫🧬

🎓 Our next 2025 IMP PhD spotlight goes to Laura Menocal from the Schietinger Lab, she defended her thesis: Differentiation State Dynamics of Memory CD8 T Cells in Tumors. A true reflection of the lab’s close-knit and supportive environment, we're so proud of her hard work and growth over the years!

Huge congratulations to Joy Hsu from the @anandasabapathylab.bsky.social on defending her thesis: "Interrogating DC-Dependent Mechanisms Supporting Superior Immunity to Vaccinia Skin Scarification." Her research sheds light on how dendritic cells shape immune responses in skin-based vaccination!🧫🧬

🎓 We'd like to send another big congrats to our 2025 IMP PhD graduates! Our next few posts, we’ll be spotlighting recent thesis defenses and celebrating the labs that supported each journey. Stay tuned and help us cheer them on! 👏🔬🧬

Our paper is out! Kudos to 1st authors Mir Howlader, who received a @weillcornell.bsky.social Rachele Prize for this work, former Peds Rheum fellow William Ambler, and all co-authors! @jclinical-invest.bsky.social @wcm-imp.bsky.social @lupusresearch.bsky.social #lymphatic #stromal #photosensitivity