The Lynch Lab studies immunometabolism. One major research focus is to understand the interdependence of the immune and metabolic systems, especially in the setting of obesity and in cancer. We study immunometabolism at both the organismal and cell-intrinsic level, which is at an exciting time of convergence. For example, perturbations in systemic metabolism that occur in obesity or cancer, affect immune cell intrinsic metabolism and thus, affect immune cell function. Our research focuses particularly on the role of innate lymphocytes, including gd T cell, iNKT cells, MAIT cells and NK cells.

 

Our research interests are quite diverse, but all fall broadly under immunometabolism. Some questions we are asking include

1) What is the main role of the adipose immune system, and what adipose-derived factors control its regulatory nature? What can we learn from this about immune regulation in other situations such as lipid-rich solid tumors?

2) What regulates the innate IL-17 family and what does IL-17 regulate? Here we are particularly interested in metabolic pathways, especially lipid metabolism, in regulating IL-17, and how IL-17 regulates non-typical immune functions such as thermogenesis, and other neuroimmune behaviors.

3) Can we manipulate metabolic pathways through diet or therapeutic options to improve immunity in obesity or other diseases.

 

As the Director of the metabolic core at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we study use state-of-the-art facilities to study immunometabolism in vivo, and take a molecular and biochemical approach in vitro, in both humans and mice. We also use multi-omics (single cell seq, metabolomics, lipidomics, proteomics) to understand cross-talk between systems and to identify major immune pathways that are perturbed during diet, metabolic disease cancer, and metabolic emergency (eg fasting, cold exposure).