The Division of Allergy and Immunology is actively engaged in basic and clinical research. The Allergy/Immunology Laboratory in the Children's Research Institute focuses on immune dysregulation, primary immunodeficiency diseases, inflammatory cytokines following exposure to marine toxins and studies of T cell responses to vaccines.

Translational and Basic Science Research in Immunology

Several faculty engage in translational and basic science research on the pathomechanisms, diagnostic and novel treatment strategies for immune dysregulation in primary immunodeficiencies.

Dr. Jolan Walter’s group focuses on T and B cell dysregulation and tolerance checkpoints in variants of severe combined immunodeficiencies (SCID) with mutation of the recombination activating gene (RAG) in human and animal studies. Translational studies include the genetics of autoimmune cytopenias and national genetic screen for WHIM (warts, hypogammaglobilinemia, infections and myelokathexis) syndrome. Our research team is committed to promote targeted therapies in primary immunodeficiencies and immune dysregulation and bone marrow transplant and gene therapy for variants of SCID and combined immunodeficiencies. 

Clinical Trials

Our Allergy & Immunology Division is actively engaged in a number of pharmaceutical Phase III and Phase IV clinical trails leading to FDA approval for new immunoglobulin produces (both IVIG and SCIg) or changes in packet insert labeling. Our Division is also involved with studies in food allergy research.

Recent Publications

• Geier CB, Ellison M, Cruz R, Pawar S, Leiss-Piller A, Zmajkovicova K, McNulty SM, Yilmaz M, Evans MO 2nd, Gordon S, Ujhazi B, Wiest I, Abolhassani H, Aghamohammadi A, Barmettler S, Bhar S, Bondarenko A, Bolyard AA, Buchbinder D, Cada M, Cavieres M, Connelly JA, Dale DC, Deordieva E, Dorsey MJ, Drysdale SB, Ehl S, Elfeky R, Fioredda F, Firkin F, Förster-Waldl E, Geng B, Goda V, Gonzalez-Granado L, Grunebaum E, Grzesk E, Henrickson SE, Hilfanova A, Hiwatari M, Imai C, Ip W, Jyonouchi S, Kanegane H, Kawahara Y, Khojah AM, Kim VH, Kojić M, Kołtan S, Krivan G, Langguth D, Lau YL, Leung D, Miano M, Mersyanova I, Mousallem T, Muskat M, Naoum FA, Noronha SA, Ouederni M, Ozono S, Richmond GW, Sakovich I, Salzer U, Schuetz C, Seeborg FO, Sharapova SO, Sockel K, Volokha A, von Bonin M, Warnatz K, Wegehaupt O, Weinberg GA, Wong KJ, Worth A, Yu H, Zharankova Y, Zhao X, Devlin L, Badarau A, Csomos K, Keszei M, Pereira J, Taveras AG, Beaussant-Cohen SL, Ong MS, Shcherbina A, Walter JE. Disease Progression of WHIM Syndrome in an International Cohort of 66 Pediatric and Adult Patients J Clin Immunol. 2022 Aug 10. doi: 10.1007/s10875-022-01312-7. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35947323
  
  
• Fliegauf M, Kinnunen M, Posadas-Cantera S, Camacho-Ordonez N, Abolhassani H, Alsina L, Atschekzei F, Bogaert DJ, Burns SO, Church JA, Dückers G, Freeman AF, Hammarström L, Hanitsch LG, Kerre T, Kobbe R, Sharapova SO, Siepermann K, Speckmann C, Steiner S, Verma N, Walter JE, Westermann-Clark E, Goldacker S, Warnatz K, Varjosalo M, Grimbacher B. Detrimental NFKB1 missense variants affecting the Rel-homology domain of p105/p50. B.Front Immunol. 2022 Aug 29;13:965326. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.965326. eCollection 2022.PMID: 36105815 Free PMC article.
  
  
• Zehentmeier S, Lim VY, Ma Y, Fossati J, Ito T, Jiang Y, Tumanov AV, Lee HJ, Dillinger L, Kim J, Csomos K, Walter JE, Choi J, Pereira JP. Dysregulated stem cell niches and altered lymphocyte recirculation cause B and T cell lymphopenia in WHIM syndrome    Sci Immunol. 2022 Sep 23;7(75):eabo3170. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.abo3170. Epub 2022 Sep 23.PMID: 36149943
  
  
• Csomos K, Ujhazi B, Blazso P, Herrera JL, Tipton CM, Kawai T, Gordon S, Ellison M, Wu K, Stowell M, Haynes L, Cruz R, Zakota B, Nguyen J, Altrich M, Geier CB, Sharapova S, Dasso JF, Leiding JW, Smith G, Al-Herz W, de Barros Dorna M, Fadugba O, Fronkova E, Kanderova V, Svaton M, Henrickson SE, Hernandez JD, Kuijpers T, Kandilarova SM, Naumova E, Milota T, Sediva A, Moshous D, Neven B, Saco T, Sargur R, Savic S, Sleasman J, Sunkersett G, Ward BR, Komatsu M, Pittaluga S, Kumanovics A, Butte MJ, Cancro MP, Pillai S, Meffre E, Notarangelo LD, Walter JE. Partial RAG deficiency in humans induces dysregulated peripheral lymphocyte development and humoral tolerance defect with accumulation of T-bet + B cells Nat Immunol. 2022 Jul 28. doi: 10.1038/s41590-022-01271-6. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35902638
  
  
• Yilmaz M, Potts DE, Geier C, Walter JE. Can we identify WHIM in infancy? Opportunities with the public newborn screening process Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2022 Oct 9. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.c.32002. Online ahead of print. PMID: 36210583 Review.
  
  
• Dey A, Peck J, Wilsey M, Walter J, Nguyen J, Gonzalez-Gomez I, Karjoo S. The Evolution of Very Early Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Autoimmune Hepatitis, and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis in a Young Girl Case Rep Gastroenterol. 2021 Nov 12;15(3):939-947. doi: 10.1159/000520184. eCollection 2021 Sep-Dec.PMID: 34949979. Free PMC article.
  
  
• Schuetz C, Gerke J, Ege MJ, Walter JE, Kusters M, Worth AJJ, Kanakry JA, Dimitrova D, Wolska-Kusnierz B, Chen K, Unal E, Karakukcu M, Pashchenko O, Leiding JW, Kawai T, Amrolia PJ, Berghuis D, Buechner J, Buchbinder D, Cowan MJ, Gennery AR, Güngör T, Heimall JR, Miano M, Meyts I, Morris EC, Rivière JG, Sharapova SO, Shaw PJ, Slatter MA, Honig M, Veys P, Fischer A, Cavazzana M, Moshous D, Schulz AS, Albert MH, Puck JM, Lankester AC, Notarangelo LD, Neven B. Hypomorphic RAG deficiency: impact of disease burden on survival and thymic recovery argues for early diagnosis and HSCT. Blood. 2022 Oct 24:blood.2022017667. doi: 10.1182/blood.2022017667. Online ahead of print. PMID: 36279417
  
  
• Sauerwein KMT, Geier CB, Stemberger RF, Rossmanith R, Akyaman H, Illes P, Fischer MB, Eibl MM, Walter JE, Wolf HM. Funtionally impaired antibody response to BNT162B2 Booster vaccination in CVID IgG responders       J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2022 Dec 1:S0091-6749(22)01618-9. Doi10.1016/j.jaci.2022.11.013.   Online ahead of print. PMID: 36463978 Free PMC article.
  
  
• Blazso P, Csomos K, Tipton CM, Ujhazi B, Walter JE Lineage Reconstruction of In Vitro Identified Antigen-Specific Autoreactive B Cells from Adaptive Immune Receptor Repertoires       Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Dec 23;24(1):225. doi: 10.3390/ijms24010225.PMID: 36613668
  
  
• Walter JE, Ziegler JB, Ballow M, Cunningham-Rundles C. Advances and Challenges of the Decade: The Ever-Changing Clinical and Genetic Landscape of Immunodeficiency J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2023 Jan;11(1):107-115. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2022.11.007.PMID: 36610755
  
  
• McGarvey L, Smith JA, Morice A, Birring SS, Chung KF, Dicpinigaitis PV, Niimi A, Benninger MS, Sher M, Matsunaga Y, Miyazaki S, Machida M, Ishihara H, Mahmood A, Gomez JC. A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel-Group Phase 2b Trial of P2X3 Receptor Antagonist Sivopixant for Refractory or Unexplained Chronic Cough Lung. 2022 Dec 13:1-11. doi: 10.1007/s00408-022-00592-5. Online ahead of print. PMID: 36512069. Free PMC article.
  
  
• Manuscript: Shen Jean Lim, Warit Jithpratuck, Kathleen Wasylik, Panida Sriaroon, and Larry J. Dishaw: Associations of Microbial Diversity with Age and Other Clinical Variables among Pediatric Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS) Patients. Microorganisms 2023, 11(2), 422 Link to full text: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/11/2/422

Book Chapters:

• Allergic and Immunologic Diseases: A Practical Guide to the Evaluation, Diagnosis and Management of Allergic and Immunologic Diseases. Editor: Christopher Chang, MD PhD Elsevier, October 2022.
  
  
  1. Chapter 22. Evaluation of a patient with anaphylaxis Sehrish Viqar and Panida Sriaroon
  2. Chapter 30. Primary immune regulatory disorders Maria Chitty-Lopez and Jolan E. Walter
  3. Chapter 41. Recognition and treatment of anaphylaxis Sehrish Viqar and Panida Sriaroon
  4. Chapter 49. Immunomodulatory pharmaceuticals for the treatment of immune dysfunction Maria Chitty-Lopez and Jolan E. Walter