The immune system is a network of organs, cells and proteins that protect organisms against infections, whether these invaders are bacteria, viruses or parasites. Thus, the immune system can distinguish between our healthy cells (self) and these invaders (nonself). The inability to distinguish between self and nonself can lead to tolerance, which is the lack of recognition of foreign invaders by the immune system, or to autoimmunity, which is the recognition by the immune system of our own healthy cells as foreign.

In collaboration with the immunology team at the Faculty of Sciences of Universidad de Chile, we are studying the immunological mechanisms that regulate the fine balance between immunity and tolerance. Our aim is to understand how the activation of dendritic cells (the main sentinels of the immune system) and regulatory T lymphocytes (the main regulator/suppressors of the immune response) can lead to protective immunity or to different pathologies such as autoimmune diseases and cancer. We hope to translate the mechanisms discovered in mouse models into the improvement of human health. Our research covers major areas of autoimmunity and its relation to the presence of LB cells in the thymus and the relation of autoimmunity and the gut microbiota.