Title: Immune-tissue crosstalk during homeostasis and disease
Date: Thursday 11 May 2023
Time: 11:20 – 11:50 JPN
Dr. Nagao is a board-certified Dermatologist (Japanese Association of Dermatology) and currently directs a research program that includes basic and pre-translational investigations on skin immunology and immune-mediated diseases. Dr. Nagao is an attending physician on the NIH Clinical Center’s Dermatology Consultation Service.
Dr. Nagao studies the skin immune system in the context of host-microbiota crosstalk during health and inflammatory conditions and has advanced our knowledge on how the skin functions as an immunological organ.
His laboratory has identified hair follicles as control towers of the skin immunity that support the tissue-residency and localization of dendritic cells, T cells, and innate lymphoid cells. In turn, the immune cells, such as the innate lymphoid cells, actively communicate with the hair follicles to regulate the commensal bacteria on the skin surface. Dr. Nagao’s laboratory has also generated a mouse model for atopic dermatitis and demonstrated Staphylococcus aureus to be a critical element during eczema formation.
In collaboration with investigators at the NIH Clinical Center, he conducts translational research on intractable inflammatory skin diseases, such as primary immunodeficiencies, to understand mechanisms that underlie host-microbial symbiosis directly in humans.
