Identifying novel spatiotemporal regulators of innate immunity

The innate immune response plays a critical role in pathogen clearance. However, dysregulation of innate immunity contributes to acute inflammatory diseases such as sepsis and many chronic inflammatory diseases including asthma, arthritis, and Crohn's disease. Pathogen recognition receptors including the Toll-like family of receptors play a pivotal role in the initiation of inflammation and in the pathogenesis of many diseases with an inflammatory component. Studies over the last 15 years have identified complex innate immune signal transduction pathways involved in inflammation that have provided many new potential therapeutic targets to treat disease. We are investigating several novel genes that exert spatial and in some cases temporal regulation on innate immunity signaling pathways. These novel genes include Tbc1d23, a RAB-GAP that inhibits innate immunity. In this review, we will discuss inflammation, the role of inflammation in disease, innate immune signal transduction pathways, and the use of spatiotemporal regulators of innate immunity as potential targets for discovery and therapeutics.