Greetings, and welcome to the Wakeland Laboratory website. The focus of our research has been on mouse genetics and understanding the genetic basis for susceptibility to autoimmune disease. Currently, there are four postdoctoral fellows and four graduate students training in the laboratory. Our current research projects include:

1. Understanding the immunologic mechanisms by which SLAM/CD2 gene family polymorphisms mediate a breach in immune tolerance to chromatin and cause autoimmunity. These studies are currently focused on characterizing the immunologic properties affected by polymorphisms in the SLAM/CD2 family.

2. Understanding the mechanisms by which suppressive modifiers such as Sles1 are capable of completely inhibiting the development of autoimmunity. These studies are currently focused on identifying Sles1, which has been localized to a genomic interval of ~900 kb.

3. Identifying Sle3 and Sle5, two genes that are capable of driving the development of severe disease when in combination with other autoimmune susceptibility genes.

4. Utilizing a combination of genetics and gene transcription profiling (microarray technology) to identify genes responsible for regulating global changes in the transcriptional profiles and functional properties of the immune system in mice.