13-Jun-2025
Researchers crack the code of body’s ancient immune defense
University of PennsylvaniaPeer-Reviewed Publication
A collaborative team led by Ravi Radhakrishnan of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Jake Brenner and Jacob Myerson of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has unraveled the mathematics of a 500-million-year-old protein network that acts like the body’s bouncer, “deciding” which foreign materials get degraded by immune cells and which are allowed entry. “This discovery enables us to design therapeutics the way you’d design a car or a spaceship—using the principles of physics to guide how the immune system will respond—rather than relying on trial and error,” says Brenner.
- Journal
- Cell
- Funder
- National Institutes of Health, PhRMA Foundation, American Heart Association, Pennsylvania Department of Health Research Formula Fund, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. National Science Foundation, Rutgers University