Current Research and Scholarly Interests
The lab is concerned with mechanisms of cellular immune reactions and tissue injury in the central nervous system (CNS) as they occur in human multiple sclerosis (MS. CNS tissue samples from animals with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model of MS, and from patients with MS and other CNS diseases are studied using histology and immunohistochemistry at the light microscopic and ultrastructural levels to visualize directly the locations of molecules that are involved in immune-mediated injury and the failure of tissue repair.
We are currently focusing on cross-recognition of neurons and neuronal precursors by anti-myelin proteolipid protein antibodies, which may result in neuronal dysfunction and the failure of neuronal repair in CNS injury and on an oligodendrogliopathy induced by the environmental agent azetidine.