Colonna Lab
The Colonna Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard investigates how innate immune cells sense danger and decide how to respond — from the microglia patrolling the brain to the dendritic cells and lymphocytes patrolling the gut.
We take a tissue immunity approach, working at two of the body's most consequential frontiers: the brain and its borders (the meninges), and the gut.
Our science follows a human-to-model-to-human arc: we start with the genetics of human disease, dissect mechanism in vitro and in mouse models, then bring findings back to patients to test translational potential across cancer, neurodegeneration, autoimmunity, and infection.
Three questions drive the lab today:
Can targeting TREM2 change the course of Alzheimer's disease — and cancer?
We study how this receptor's signaling shapes microglia and tumor-associated macrophages alike.
How does the gut decide what to tolerate and what to fight?
We are mapping the role of RORγt+ innate lymphoid cells and RORγt+ dendritic cells in tolerance to microbiota and food antigens, and in defense against pathogens.
What keeps innate immune responses in check?
We study type I interferon (IFN-α/β) and other cytokine signaling pathways in sepsis and autoimmune diseases, dissecting how dysregulated responses drive both excessive inflammation and immune suppression.
