Current activity: I am currently Associate Professor of Pathology as well as Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. My laboratory studies the pathogenesis and regulation of autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of human multiple sclerosis (MS). Recently we demonstrated that macrophage inflammatory protein-1a (MIP-1 ) directly plays a role in the pathogenesis of acute EAE through chemoattraction of T cells into the CNS, and that monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) plays a role in the pathogenesis of relapsing EAE. We also are investigating the role of other chemokines (RANTES, MIP-1ß, and MIP-2) in the migration of T cells and macrophages to the CNS as well as the effects of chemokines on the intracellular signaling events involved in the regulation of effector cytokine production. Recent results suggest that chemokines act directly on naive T cells and Th0 cells to drive cytokine production toward either a Th1 (inflammatory) or Th2 (regulatory) phenotype. Specifically, MIP-1 potentiates IFN-gamma production and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) potentiates IL-4 production. Furthermore, MCP-1 appears to downregulate IL-12 expression during tolerance induction, suggesting a role for chemokines in both T helper cell differentiation and regulation. We are examining the molecular mechanisms of these signaling pathways.