Erdman Laboratory

The Erdman Laboratory at MIT studies microbe triggered inflammatory processes and cancer. The laboratory collaborates with world-leaders pioneering research in the fields of GI tract microbiome and immunology in systemic health and disease.

The lab works with a synergistic team of scientists with diverse backgrounds, training and institutional environments with the unified goal of targeting inflammatory processes in disease and in health. My background in Comparative Medicine at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and postdoctoral training from Harvard School of Public Health provides unique expertise in animal models of immunology and cancer, integrated with a global perspective on human health.

Brief Key Findings

(*) Regulatory TREG cells inhibit non-B non-T colitis
(*) Gut bacteria-triggered innate immunity is sufficient for cancer
(*) Interleukin-10-dependent immune tolerance to microbes suppresses malignancy
(*) Enteropathogenic gut bacteria trigger extra-intestinal cancer
(*) Earlier microbe exposures facilitate immune tolerance and prevent cancer
(*) Feeding of sterile microbes is sufficient for immune tolerance
(*) Adoptive transfer of tolerant immune cells increases lifespan
(*) Gut bacteria, IL10, and mucosal immunity unify cancer with other inflammatory disorders