Nathan Karin PhD

Nathan Karin focuses on exploring regulatory mechanisms in inflammatory autoimmunity; with a particular interest in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a T cell mediated autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, serving as a model for multiple sclerosis (MS). A major field of interest of NK and his team refers to the role of chemokines as drivers of CD4+ T cell polarization and function, not only as drivers of inflammation but also as inducers of inducers of anti inflammatory properties, including the polarization of antigen specific T-regs that restrain autoimmunity (Meiron et al JEM 2008). Another path of research refers to the previous discovery of NK and his team that during inflammatory autoimmunity, and solid-phase cancer diseases the immune system generates autoantibody response to key inflammatory chemokines and cytokines that drive the pathogenesis of these diseases (Wildbaum, Nahir and Karin, Immunity 2003). This led to the development of a target discovery platform for diagnosis and identification of new targets for therapy of these diseases