Francisco Javier Quintana

The Quintana laboratory studies the regulation of the immune response by endogenous and environmental factors, with the ultimate goal of dissecting the molecular mechanisms that control the immune response and identifying novel targets for therapeutic immunomodulation in immune-mediated disorders and cancer. To this aim, we use genomic and proteomic tools to analyze in vitro and in vivo experimental models and human samples. A distinctive feature of the Quintana laboratory is that, in addition to human, murine and humanized murine models, our investigations utilize innovative zebrafish systems to study the immune system. We are focused on studying endogenous and environmental factors that regulate the transcriptional and epigenetic programs that control the activity of T cells, dendritic cells and astrocytes which play central roles in the control of the immune response in the periphery and the central nervous system. Collectively, these studies aim to identify basic immunoregulatory mechanisms while guiding the development of new therapeutic approaches for immune-mediated disorders.