Shlomchik’s research interests include the areas of autoimmunity, blood or blood products or transfusions, bone marrow transplantation, immunobiology, immunology, immunopathology, immunotherapy, lymphocytes and transgenic animals. His lab is interested in B cell development and immunopathogenesis. One set of projects focuses on autoimmunity: how do autoreactive B cells arise and what are the role(s) that these cells play in mediating autoimmune disease? Shlomchik is investigating the role of Toll-like receptors in systemic autoimmunity. A second project addresses B cell activation and memory. The group made recent insights, including via in vivo multiphoton microscopy, into the mechanisms of cellular selection and differentiation in the germinal center, a site of rapid proliferation, mutation, and differentiation into memory cells. It has identified novel memory-specific genes and is studying their roles using KO mice and in vitro signaling assays. The group is also investigating why memory T cells fail to cause graft-vs-host disease using a new TCR Tg model.

Professor Shlomchik about his lecture „Lupus Pathogenesis: B vs. DC and Other NET Results”:

“I will discuss the differential roles of B cells and myeloid cells in promoting T cell activation and disease in lupus. B cells have long been known to play a critical role in lupus, in large part by promoting activation of autoreactive T cells and possibly via pathogenic autoantibodies. Two questions have remained about B cells in lupus: 1) how are they activated in the first place; and (2) are they the primary antigen-presenting cells for autoreactive T cells, or do they merely amplify T cells that obligatorily have to be activated by DCs first? The answers to these questions have profound impacts on our concepts of how tolerance is actually broken in lupus and most likely other autoimmune diseases. I will present our data addressing both of these issues. This also raises the question of what non-redundant roles do DCs—and other myeloid cells—play in promoting or regulating lupus. We have been using genetic approaches to investigate the contributions of DCs, and several key molecules that DCs express, in the activation of T cells and in promoting target organ disease in lupus. Most recently we have used a genetic approach to investigate the role of neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation. I will present recent data from these studies.”