Pavel Hanc, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow Harvard Medical School

Together, the immune system and our peripheral nervous system cooperate to maintain the health of our tissues and respond to many of the problems that arise. However, the interactions between these two systems were only recently confirmed and much of the details remain unknown. To address this issue, Dr. Pavel Hanc aims to understand in detail the interplay between pain-sensitive neurons and dendritic cells, important immune cells involved in orchestrating immune responses against threats. To that end, Dr. Hanc is developing a novel culture system to characterize the molecules and the underlying framework that govern the interactions between these two important cell types. Ultimately, Dr. Hanc’s findings should not only broaden our knowledge of neuroimmune interactions but also open new, previously unappreciated avenues of research that may eventually lead to novel immunotherapies.

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