Research Areas
- Basic Immunology
- Inflammation
- Innate Immunity
- Molecular Genetics
- Gender:
- Male
Education & Training
Education
- 1996
- Harvard University, PhD
Special Interests
Diseases of the immune system such as sepsis, asthma, and atherosclerosis affect millions of people worldwide, and the incidence of many of these diseases is rising. My lab is focused on understanding the regulation of the innate immune response, particularly as it relates to the basis for such immunological diseases. We are using a comparative genomics approach in the nematode C. elegans and mammalian cell culture to identify novel regulators of the innate immune response.
Publications
De Arras, L. Yang, IV, Lackford, B, Riches, DWH, Prekeris, R, Freedman, JH, Schwartz, DA, and Alper, S. Spatiotemporal inhibition of innate immunity signaling by the Tbc1d23 RAB-GAP. J. Immunol. 188: 2905-13 (2012).
Yang, IV, Alper, S, Lackford, B, Rutledge, H, Burch, LH, and Schwartz, DA. Novel Regulators of the Systemic Response to Lipopolysaccharide (LPS). American J. Resp. Cell. Mol. Biol. 45: 393-402. (2011).
Alper, S. Model Systems to the Rescue: the relationship between aging and innate immunity. Comm. & Integr. Biol. 3(5): 409-414 (2010).
Alper S, McElwee M, Apfeld J, Lackford B, Freedman JH, Schwartz DA. Germline proliferation regulates distinct signaling pathways in C. elegans to control lifespan and innate immunity. J Biol Chem, 285: 1822-1828 (2010).
Alper S, Laws R, Lackford B, Boyd WA, Dunlap P, Freedman JH, Schwartz DA. Identification of novel innate immunity genes and pathways using a comparative genomics approach. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:7016-7021 (2008).