Immune systems organize the interactions of hosts with invading microorganisms.  While symbionts are welcome guests, pathogens cause disease (and in the worst case death) and are thus the target of immune responses.  The most basic mechanisms of immunity are phagocytosis (the ability to eat and digest pathogens - phagocytic cells) and cytotoxicity (the ability to kill infected cells to release the pathogens they contain so that phagocytosis can eliminate them - killer cells).  We are interested in understanding how the immune systems of metazoans (=animals) evolved from these two fundamental building blocks into the complex networks of diverse immune cell types and communication/effector molecules that form their common and diversified defense mechanisms. 

We are using marine invertebrates to study the evolution of immune systems.  Currently we are using (A) Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (purple sea urchin) and (B) Exaiptasia pallida (a sea anemone) together with its symbiont Symbiodinium minutum.  We also at times collect Lingula anatina (a brachiopod) in the wild, but we are always ready to add new species to our lab zoo.  

Recently we also ventured back to the vertebrate world to investigate the immune genome of Oncorhynchus masou formosanus (the Formosan landlocked salmon) a critically endangered salmonid fish in Taiwan.