Welcome to the Yarovinsky Lab

Our lab has two major areas of interest:

• Innate immunity to protozoan parasites
• Paneth cells in the regulation of intestinal homeostasis and mucosal immunity

The major interests of our lab involve studying innate immune sensing pathways and their role in regulation of host defense to intracellular pathogens.  Our lab is focused on understanding how Toll-like receptors cooperate with other recognition systems to detect protozoan parasites Toxoplasma gondii, Cryprosporidium and malaria and how innate immune recognition regulates host defense. 

We also aim to understand the mechanisms controlling host-pathogen interactions in the gut, a highly specialized environment with distinct structures, epithelial cell types, and innate defense mechanisms required for mucosal host defense.

Our lab uses a combination of cellular and molecular techniques including germ-free mouse models to investigate mucosal immune cells and their contribution to the composition of microbiota and the development of intestinal immune response and inflammation.