Smita Gopinath

Our body is colonized by a robust and diverse ecosystem - the commensal microbiome. When mucosal pathogens infect us, they first encounter our commensals before they encounter and activate our immune response. The Gopinath lab is interested in the interactions between the commensal microbiota, pathogens and the host immune response in the one place they must necessarily meet – the mucosa. We have multiple projects aimed at studying host-pathogen interactions in the gut and vaginal mucosa and how these interactions are modulated by both the gut and vaginal microbiota. We will examine these interactions using a combination of genomics, cellular and molecular immunology techniques in both bacterial (Salmonella) and viral (Herpes Simplex Virus) infections across germ-free, gnotobiotic and conventional mice.