Jennifer Lund, PhD

Dr. Jennifer Lund is an immunobiologist and assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She studies regulatory T cells, or Tregs, as well as mucosal immunity to infections using both mouse models as well as human tissues.

She also founded the The Jennifer Lund lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which has a focus on elucidating the basic mechanisms of anti-viral immunity and mucosal immunity using both mouse models as well as human tissues. Current projects include defining the roles and modes of action of tissue-resident memory T cells and regulatory T cells during mucosal virus infection, identifying novel mucosal immune correlates of protection from HIV-1 infection, and discovering new genes involved in immune responses to flavivirus infection, including both Zika and West Nile viruses.

She also studies how the body combats infections at mucosal barriers, which separate the body from the external environment. Because the pathogens that cause the majority of infections of public health importance enter the body at these boundaries, better understanding the “first responder” immune events that occur there could help researchers design improved vaccines as well as other prevention and treatment strategies aimed at reducing the global burden of infectious diseases.