Richard DiPaolo, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair
Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

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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.