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Neil Warner, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
 
Contact Information
Campus Address:
4131 Cancer Center- Nunez Lab
1500 E. Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, MI, USA 48109		Telephone: (734) 647-9651
Fax: (734) 647-9654
Email: neilwarn@umich.edu

Professional Education:

2006-2007  Postdoctoral   SLRI Mount Sinai Hospital

1999-2005  Ph.D.             University of Toronto

1994-1998   Hons B.Sc.    McMaster University

Research Interests

My current research interests are focused on investigating the signal transduction pathways that regulate the NOD-like receptor family of innate immune receptors. In particular, I am using both biochemical and genetics techniques to identify and characterize novel regulators of NOD2, a NLR family member known to be deregulated in a variety of inflammatory disorders including Crohn's disease, early onset sarcoidosis, and Blau Syndrome.

Brief Biography

I became interested in biology and genetics while pursuing my undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I went on to complete my Ph.D. at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Tony Pawson (http://pawsonlab.mshri.on.ca) where I explored the role of modular protein domains in the regulation of protein kinase based signal transduction pathways. My interests in protein kinase signaling and the role of modular domains as building blocks to assemble multiprotein regulatory complexes brought me to the Dr. Gabriel Nunez's laboratory for my postdoctoral studies. Here I am interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms by which the intracellular NOD-like family of innate immune receptors (NLRs) regulate inflammation, cell death, and host defense. The modular domain architecture of this family is conserved across vertebrates and plants. In vertebrates, NLRs have been shown to initiate a cascade of downstream kinases leading to changes in gene expression programs via transcriptional regulators such as the NF-kB family of transcription factors while another subclass of NLRs regulate the activity of the inflammatory protease, Caspase-1. Clinically the deregulation of several NLR family members have been implicated in a variety of human inflammatory disorders.