The Node’s primary research interest is investigating the regulation of the innate immune system from a genome-wide or systems level perspective. The innate immune system is subsystem of the overall immune system. It is responsible for defending the host from infection and is primarily found in plants, insects, fungi and other, evolutionarily older, multicellar organisms.
Research
In their research, the Lynn Node uses in vitro and in vivo (mouse) experimental models coupled with systems biology approaches to investigate the regulation of innate immunity.
One of the recent focuses of the node is the relationship between the immune system and the microbiome. Additionally, the Lynn group are looking at what effect vaccines on mortality and morbidity outside of preventing the targeted diseases, as well as seeing how particular vaccines can assist immune cells to be more responsive to unrelated antigens.
David has developed a node that applies similar integrative biology approaches as described above to human health and he has a particular interest in the role of microRNAs in regulating innate immunity networks. David's node will also continue to develop novel computational analysis tools to facilitate this research including new network analysis and visualization tools. David will also continue to lead the development of InnateDB (http://www.innatedb.com/), a computational analysis platform for studying innate immune networks, which is used world-wide by thousands of users.
David has also expanded his interest in network biology into the cancer signaling area, and he leads the computational biology aspects of €12 million European Commission funded project called PRIMES, which is investigating how to model and subsequently therapeutically target protein interaction networks in cancer.
