The Lowance Center for Human Immunology, led by Emory Division of Rheumatology Director Ignacio Sanz, MD, cuts across traditional academic divisions in medicine and translates new knowledge in basic immunology to human immune-mediated diseases.
Lowance Center Goals
The overall goal of the Lowance Center for Human Immunology is to understand the immunological and molecular mechanisms responsible for human autoimmune, inflammatory and allergic diseases. The Lowance Center studies both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune response and the mutual regulation of the two components.
In the larger picture, the knowledge of immune function derived from the studies pursued at the Lowance Center also provide important insight into multiple other human conditions including transplantation, cancer and the immune response to infections and vaccination. This goal is pursued through the integrated effort of basic, clinical and translational scientists applying state-of-the-art technology and computational biology as well as advanced epidemiology and outcomes research tools.
In addition to providing fundamental insight into disease pathogenesis and treatment, we aim to identify specific immunological defects that can be used to develop biomarkers of disease heterogeneity in order to better segment diseases into discreet subsets. In turn, disease segmentation is used to select treatments targeted to the defective molecular pathways specifically responsible for different disease subsets. This approach should result in more effective and safer treatments for the individual patient (Precision Medicine). The knowledge derived from our studies will also provide better biomarkers of disease progression and response to treatment. Ultimately, we seek to use this knowledge to reverse well-established disease and to prevent disease development in high-risk subjects.
Center Members
The Lowance Center contributes to improving immunological knowledge and advancing the treatment of human immunological diseases through the coordinated effort of dedicated scientists and physicians working together with clinical coordinators and nurses.
Bryon Au-Yeung, PhD
Au-Yeung’s research is focused on studying the activation of T cell immune responses. Signaling from the T cell receptor (TCR) is the primary driver of T cell activation. TCR signaling can vary in strength and may impact T cell function. One project in the lab is studying how changes in the strength of TCR signals can influence how CD4+ helper T cells acquire different cellular functions. Other projects include studying how weaker or stronger reactivity of T cells to the body’s own “self” proteins can impact T cell function. The long-term goal of this work is to better understand how T cells promote autoimmunity, and identify ways to block this process.
Cristina Drenkard, MD, PhD
Drenkard is the leading investigator of an NIH-funded study that aims to examine the effectiveness of a generic, community-based self-management program among African American women with SLE. She is co-principal investigator of the Georgians Organized Against Lupus (GOAL) study, a CDC-supported population-based cohort of individuals with SLE and cutaneous lupus from the Southeastern U.S., who are followed over time to examine the role of social determinants of health and biological factors on a variety of outcomes through the overarching lens of racial disparities in lupus. In addition, Drenkard is the leading investigator of a mixed methods study leveraged on the online-based program ‘Hablemos de Lupus,' aiming to better understand illness perceptions and self-management needs of Latino patients with SLE. Drenkard is also the director of a website- and social media-based program in Spanish and Portuguese known as ‘Hablemos de Lupus’ (Spanish)/Falando de Lúpus (Portuguese)’ to educate the Latin-American lay population about lupus.
Eliver Ghosn, PhD
The Ghosn Lab combines high-dimensional flow cytometry and multi-OMICs single-cell sequencing technologies as a Systems Immunology approach to study the development and function of tissue-resident immune cells, including tissue-resident macrophages and B lymphocytes that develop early during embryogenesis (fetal life) and persist in tissues throughout adulthood. We use in vivo mouse models of lineage-tracing and fate-mapping, humanized mice, and patient/clinical samples to study the differences between tissue-resident versus circulating immune cells. We expect our studies, from both basic and translational research, to provide new insights into the development and function of the human immune system in infants and adults and shed light on the mechanisms that lead to organ-specific inflammatory disorders (including autoimmunity, infectious diseases, cancers, and immunodeficiencies) that predominant at different developmental ages, and inform the development of new vaccines that are targeted to either children or adults.
Scott A. Jenks, PhD
Jenks has a longing standing interest in the complexity of the immune system. His recent work has focused on understanding alternative pathways of class switched B cell activation that are dramatically expanded and contribute to disease in autoimmune patients. He is also interested in using Vh4.34 antibodies as a model to study the maintenance of serological tolerance and how this breaks down in lupus patients.
Sung Lim, MD
Lim's main interest is outcomes and epidemiology of systemic lupus erythematosus. He is the PI of several grants. He currently has six federally funded grants (CDC, NIH), six pharmaceutical company sponsored clinical trials, one foundation sponsored clinical trial, two foundation grants, one PCORI subaward, and one academic subaward. Lim heads the Lupus Clinic, which was established to treat patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and cutaneous lupus - chronic autoimmune disorders that disproportionately affects African Americans and younger women. As a cutting edge leader, the clinic at Grady uses a multidisciplinary approach of medical care, education, and support groups, along with integrated research projects. Since its opening in 2002, the lupus clinic has been a resource for many epidemiologic, outcomes, quality, and translational studies with national and international visibility. As a result, the Grady Lupus Clinic has led to multiple grants from federal agencies (CDC, NIH), private organizations, foundations, and pharmaceutical companies.
Dmitry Shayakhmetov, PhD
Shayakhmetov's research has been focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of initiation and maintenance of pathologic inflammation, pathogen-host interactions, and innate immune and inflammatory responses to microbial and viral pathogens.
Frances Lee, MD
Christopher Tipton, PhD
Partner Organizations
Autoimmune Centers of Excellence
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has created the Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence (ACEs) to encourage and enable collaborative research – across scientific disciplines, across medical specialties, and between basic and clinical scientists – in the search for effective treatments for autoimmune diseases.
Georgia Resource Alliance
The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) grows Georgia's economy by expanding university research capacity and by seeding and shaping startup companies around inventions and discoveries.
Emory Vaccine Center
Winship Cancer Institute
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Lowance Center Leadership and Administration
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Kelly Campbell, Administrative Assistant
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Louise Hartson, Staff Manager
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Sang Le, Clinical Studies Coordinar, Director
- Jason VanGalder, Business Manager
Staff
Louise Hartson, BA
Senior Research Specialist, Sanz Lab
Division of Allergy and Immunology, Emory University
Whitehead Biomedical Research Building, Rm. 255
615 Michael St.
Atlanta, GA 30322
(404) 712-2959
Clinical Coordinators
For information regarding our research projects, please contact Sang Le, Associate Director, Research Projects, Clinical Studies Coordinator Director.