Research
Two questions we can't put down.
Most of our time goes to two projects that look unrelated and, honestly, kind of are. One is about a cell — the neutrophil — that keeps behaving in ways its reputation can't explain. The other is about a receptor for itch that we found driving skin cancer. What ties them together is a soft spot for biology that turns up where it doesn't belong.
The main focus — Neutrophils
The things neutrophils aren't supposed to do
Neutrophils are the body's first responders: fast, everywhere, and — for most of the last century — written off as blunt instruments that rush in, kill the invading pathogen, and die. We keep finding that this is too simple. Cues — for example, neuropeptides — can coax a neutrophil into a calmer, repair-leaning state instead of an inflammatory one. We want to understand the versatile behaviors of neutrophils during sterile and non-sterile inflammation.
Published
A neuropeptide–GPCR signal that pushes neutrophils toward a repair-leaning "alternative" state during inflammation.
Ongoing
Neuropeptides and neutrophils in type 2 immunity — how these cells behave in allergic and barrier settings.
Ongoing
Other neuropeptides and non-canonical molecules that neutrophils respond to, or carry, when we didn't expect them to.
A separate thread — Melanoma
An itch receptor that drives melanoma
This one started as a genuine surprise. MRGPRX4 is a receptor best known for making you itch — it sits on a small set of sensory neurons and normally responds to bile acids. We found it switched on in melanoma, and specifically in the most invasive, treatment-resistant tumor cells. We're trying to understand how this receptor, otherwise silenced in melanocytes, becomes poised during oncogenesis.
Preprint, 2026 · bioRxiv
A few threads run through all of it:
Plasticity
Neutrophil fate & polarization
We map molecular switches that dictate their polarization between inflammatory and reparative states.
Neuro-immune
Neuropeptides from neurons or self-sources
Sensory neurons and neuropeptides — acting through GPCRs like the MRGPR family — instruct immune cell fates. We trace those circuits.
Mucosal
Type 2 & barrier immunity
At the body's barriers, neutrophils set the tone of allergic and airway disease.
An itch receptor that drives cancer. A cell built to destroy that turns out to heal. We're drawn to unexpected biology.
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