Flu

Biography

Dr. Connolly is a Senior Principal Investigator and Director for Translational Immunology at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMCB). Additionally, Dr. Connolly serves as Program Director for the A*Star Program in Translational Research in Infectious Disease (http://www.a-star.edu.sg/aspire), a multi-disciplinary center focused on target discovery and vaccine development. His research interests focus on rational vaccine design. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Immunology at Baylor University. Dr. Connolly received his Ph.D. in Immunology from Dartmouth Medical School and studied human dendritic cell biology under Dr. Michael Fanger. During this time he was involved in the development of immunotherapeutic preclinical models and clinical trials for Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). He moved to the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, a fully translational research institute dedicated to rationally designed vaccines against cancer and infectious disease. Dr. Connolly served as the Director of Research Initiatives for the Baylor Research Institute, leading a large integrated translational research resource and multi-institutional programs that involved a number of international sites. During his tenure at Baylor, Dr. Connolly was the central core facility director of the NIAID Centers for Translational Research on Human Immunology and Biodefense, an NIH funded consortium of basic, translational research and clinical trials focused on vaccine design.

Research Interest

My interests lie in establishing a productive translational research program focusing on Dendritic Cell (DC) based immunotherapy. DCs form a critical link between the innate and adaptive immune response. During infection, DCs recognize and capture invading pathogens. The innate immune recognition of these pathogens drives DCs down a specific path of maturation. These mature, specialized DCs are then able to polarize the adaptive response toward distinct antipathogenic effector states, such as Th1, Th2 or Th17. Recently, research has indicated that in addition to inducing immune responses, polarized DCs play a critical role in maintaining self-tolerance. My primary research goals are directed toward understanding the role of human dendritic cell subsets in the induction of immunity and tolerance and exploiting this knowledge for the generation of novel vaccines.