Exploring the regulation of innate immune responses at mucosal tissues

Dr. Elia Tait Wojno investigates how innate immune responses are regulated during type 2 inflammation at mucosal barriers, which occurs in response to helminth infection and during allergic disease.  The Tait Wojno laboratory utilizes murine models of parasite infection and allergy and analysis of human and canine patient samples.  These studies focus on dissecting how cytokines, lipids, and cell-cell interactions shape the effector functions, development, and migration of rare immune cells including basophils and group 2 innate lymphoid cells.  Ultimately, the Tait Wojno laboratory seeks to unravel the cellular and molecular networks that regulate the activities of these cells at mucosal and barrier tissues such as the intestine, lung, and skin.  Current projects in the laboratory focus on 3 major areas:

• The regulation of innate immune effector function in the intestine during helminth infection and in the lung during allergic inflammation. Ongoing studies focus on the role of prostaglandins in the lung and intestine in orchestrating type 2 inflammation via actions on various innate immune cells, employing cellular and molecular assays and genome-wide approaches.  These studies fill a gap in our understanding of how proteins, lipids, and cell-cell interactions via the Notch signaling pathway control innate immune cells that shape type 2 inflammation.

• Cellular immune responses during canine allergic disease.  This study seeks to identify and characterize key immune responses that drive allergic inflammation in canine skin during atopic dermatitis.  This work addresses a major knowledge gap in canine immunology and will inform whether these key immune response are viable targets for the development of new treatments for canine allergy.  In addition, this work will help to establish naturally occurring allergic disease in companion dogs as a key model that can be used to learn more about atopy in general, benefiting both canine and human patients.

• The development of the immune system.  Recent work in the laboratory focuses on how the cells of the immune system develop over a lifetime, with specific interest in the ontogeny of innate lymphoid cells and CD4+ T cells during health and disease.  These studies center around dissecting the factors that govern gene expression programs that specify immune cell lineages throughout the lifespan and downstream effects on functionality during infection.

• January 2011: Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Biomedical Graduate Studies, Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Group, Microbiology, Virology, and Parasitology Program
• May 2005: B.A., Drew University, Madison, NJ. Biology major. GPA 3.931 overall, major 3.945, graduation with honors

• January 2004 - 2005: Student Researcher, Drew University, Madison, NY. Drug resistance in parasitic nematodes. William Campbell, Ph.D, Advisor.
• September 2005 - December 2010: Ph.D. Student, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Laboratory of Christopher Hunter, Ph.D. Immune responses during infection with Toxoplasma gondii and the function of IL-27 during Toxoplasma gondii infection and in T regulatory cell homeostasis.
• January 2011 - June 2011: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Laboratory of Christopher Hunter, Ph.D.
• June 2011 - December 2014: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA and Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, New York, NY. Laboratory of David Artis, Ph.D.
• January 2015 - present: Assistant Professor, Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Baker Institute for Animal Health, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Ithaca, NY. Dissecting the contribution of innate immune cells, prostaglandins, and epithelial cell-derived cytokines to T helper type 2 cytokine-mediated inflammation at mucosal sites.

Links and abstracts for all of Dr. Tait Wojno's publications can be found at NCBI.

1. Tait Wojno, ED; Artis, D. (2016). Emerging concepts and future challenges in innate lymphoid cell biology.  The Journal of Experimental Medicine, 213(11), 2229-2248. 

2. Monticelli, LA; Buck, MD; Flamar, AL; Saenz, SA; Tait Wojno, ED; Yudanin, NA; Osborne, LC; Hepworth, MR; Tran, SV; Rodewald, HR; Shah, H; Cross, JR; Diamond, JM; Cantu, E; Christie, JD; Pearce, EL; Artis,D. (2016). Arginase 1 is an innate lymphoid cell-intrinsic metabolic checkpoint controlling type 2 inflammation.  Nature Immunology, 17(6):656-665.

3. Tait Wojno, ED. (2016). Innate lymphoid cells: an emerging population in type 2 inflammation.  WC Gause & D Artis (Eds.), The Th2 Type Immune Response (pp. 13-31). New York, NY: Springer.

4. Tait Wojno, ED; Monticelli, LA; Tran, SV; Alenghat, T; Osborne, LC; Thome, JJ; Willis, C; Budelsky, A; Farber, DL; Artis, D. (2015). The prostaglandin D₂₂ receptor CRTH2 regulates accumulation of group 2 innate lymphoid cells in the inflamed lung. Mucosal Immunology, 8(6), 1313-1323.  

5. Kim, BS; Wang, K; Siracusa, MC; Saenz, SA; Brestoff, JR; Monticelli, LA; Noti, M; Tait Wojno, ED; Fund, TC; Kubo, M; Artis, D. (2014).  Basophils promote innate lymphoid cell responses in inflamed skin.  Journal of Immunology, 193(7), 3717-3725.

6. Siracusa, MC; Saenz, SA; Tait Wojno, ED; Kim, BS; Osborne, LC; Ziegler, CG; Benitez, AJ; Ruymann, KR; Farber, DL; Sleiman, PM; Hakonarson,H; Cianferoni, A; Wang, ML; Spergel, JM; Comeau, MR; Artis, D. (2013).  Thymic stromal lymphopoietin-mediated extramedullary hematopoiesis promotes allergic inflammation.  Immunity, 39(6), 1158-1170.

7. Tait Wojno, ED;*, Noti, M;*, Kim, BS; Siracusa, MC; Giacomin, PR; Nair, MG; Benitez, AJ; Ruymann, KR; Muir, AB; Hill, DA; Chikwava, KR; Moghaddam, AE; Sattentau, QJ; Alex, A; Zhou, C; Yearley, JH; Menard-Katcher, P; Kubo, M; Obata-Ninomiya, K; Karasuyama, H; Comeau, MR; Brown-Whitehorn, T; Malefyt, R; Sleiman, PM; Hakonarson, AC; Falk, GW; Wang, ML; Spergel, JM; Artis, D.  (2013).  TSLP-elicited basophil responses promote eosinophilic esophagitis. Nature Medicine, 19(8), 1005-1013.  * These authors contributed equally.

• American Association of Immunologists, Early Career Faculty Travel Grant, May 2015
• Woods Hole Immunoparasitology Conference, Parasite Immunology Woods Hole Immunoparasitology Poster Prize, April 2015
• American Association of Immunologists, Trainee Abstract Award, May 2014
• International Cytokine and Interferon Society Postdoctoral Investigator Award, First Place, September 2013 
• Novartis Award in Biology, Spring 2005 
• Beta Beta Beta Convention Brooks Award, Spring 2005 
• Phi Beta Kappa, inducted Spring 2004
• Drew Scholars Award, Fall 2001

• Participant, American Association of Immunologists Membership Focus Group. May 2015
• Primary Member, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine Graduate Field of Immunology and Infectious Disease. April 2015
• Member, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine Graduate Field of Comparative Biomedical Sciences. April 2015. Reviewer, Infection and Immunity, April 2015