Wolf Lab
The Wolf Laboratory studies the cross-talk between the innate immune system of the cell and how the metabolism in phagocytic cells determines the degree and duration of the inflammatory signals. We are studying the importance of the glycolytic enzyme, hexokinase, in sensing bacteria inflammatory sugars generated during degradation of cell wall peptidoglycan. In addition, the laboratory is studying the importance of the multiple hexokinase genes expressed by phagocytic cells to the regulation of their inflammatory responses during bacterial infection, and during inflammatory diseases like inflammatory bowel disease.
The Wolf Laboratory is affiliated with the F. Widjaja Foundation Inflammatory Bowel and Immunobiology Research Institute and the Department of Biomedical Sciences.
Personal Statement
At UCSF, I studied the initiation of the adaptive immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis with Joel D. Ernst, MD, and my thesis research focused on developing methods of quantitating and characterizing the subsets of phagocytic cells infected by M. tuberculosis in the lung and lymph nodes, followed by an examination of how the delay in movement of infected cells to the draining lymph nodes contributes to delayed onset of the adaptive immune response and chronic nature of the M. tuberculosis infection. I then joined the Underhill Lab at Cedars-Sinai and studied the importance of Dectin-1 and Card9 to the antifungal immune responses and how human polymorphisms in Dectin-1 and Card9 impact disease, as well as studied NLRP3 inflammasome in response to bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan. My laboratory focuses on how degradation of bacteria and fungi by phagocytic cells alters the inflammatory responses and the metabolism of the phagocytic cells."
Andrea J. Wolf, PhD
The Wolf Laboratory studies the response of phagocytic cells to the cell wall of gram-positive bacteria. The bacteria-derived sugar, n-acetylglucosamine, interferes with the phagocytic cell’s metabolism and triggers an inflammatory response. The Wolf Lab is studying the importance of glycolytic metabolism to phagocytic cell inflammatory response during infection and inflammation.
Collaborations
Internal
- Arditi Laboratory
- Devkota Lab
- Martins Laboratory
- Michelsen Laboratory
- Shiao Lab
- Shimada Laboratory
- Underhill Laboratory
External
- Felix Sommer, PhD, University Hospital Schleswig Holstein, Kiel, Germany
- Liza Makowski, PhD, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center
- Frances Byrne, PhD, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
Meet Our Team
Learn more about the scientists, faculty members, investigators and other healthcare professionals of the Wolf Laboratory, whose dedicated efforts lead to groundbreaking discoveries.
Job Openings
The Wolf Laboratory has an open position for a postdoc. To apply, please apply online for the Postdoctoral Scientist - Wolf Lab position.
Wolf AJ, Limon JJ, Nguyen C, Prince A, Castro A, Underhill DM.
J Leukoc Biol. 2021. 109(1):161-172.
Wolf AJ, Reyes CN, Liang W, Becker C, Shimada K, Wheeler ML, Cho HC, Popescu NI, Coggeshall KM, Arditi M, Underhill DM.
Cell. 2016. 166(3):624-636.
Muller S, Wolf AJ, Iliev ID, Berg BL, Underhill DM, Liu GY.
Cell Host Microbe. 2015. 18(5):604-612.