Welcome to the Link Lab!!

The Link lab explores the nutrition-microbiome-immune cell crosstalk through the lens of macrophages and their interaction with tissues in genetically diverse mice and human patients. It is generally acknowledged that nutrition plays an important role in overall health and can impact disease severity for a wide range of diseases including chronic inflammatory diseases including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and psoriasis. In the last decade, we have also gained an understanding of the big impact of the microbiome on human health and the important role it plays in establishing and maintaining chronic inflammatory diseases. Furthermore, genetic predisposition is an important factor for the development of chronic inflammatory diseases, requiring a better understanding of the impact of genetic diversity on disease onset and progression. The development of precision-nutrition therapies holds promise, requiring an understanding of the interplay between genetic diversity, the immune system, and nutrition. Our laboratory focuses on macrophages as key-resident innate immune cells involved in inflammatory diseases. We seek to establish a mechanistic understanding of how nutrition and the microbiome impacts macrophage phenotypes in the gut and skin of genetically diverse hosts by identifying the transcription factor networks involved. Concurrently, our laboratory develops advanced multi-omics analysis methods that integrate natural genetic variation with multi-omics datasets.