Harvard Catalyst Profiles

UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA

PhD

06/2009

Immunology

The Jain lab is housed in the Department of Pediatrics within the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at MGH. The driving force of our work is the idea that pre- and postnatal experiences that impact immune development can have long-term consequences on health. Immune system programming starts early in life and may influence the risk of developing conditions such as allergic, autoimmune and neuropsychiatric disorders in childhood and adulthood. Therefore, an understanding of how the immune system is educated or mis-educated in early life will provide opportunities to assess disease risk and pathology with a new perspective.

Early life immunity is functionally distinct and responsive to programming that persists into adulthood. The development of the immune system begins in utero. Distinct hematopoietic stem cells give rise to unique lineages of lymphoid and myeloid cells at specified times during development. These events create layers of immune cell populations that collectively endow the immune system with vast capabilities. Immune function in the perinatal period is also defined by unique sets of exposures. During gestation, the fetal immune system is heavily influenced by maternal immune states arising, for example, from infections and vaccinations. At birth and in the immediate postnatal period, the still developing immune system of the newborn is abruptly exposed to a multitude of environmental and microbial antigens and must rapidly discriminate friend from foe. The main goal of our research is to determine how immunity develops and is functionally programmed in early life, and the consequences of this programming on disease susceptibility.