network of light circles and lines stretch across a dark blue background
BMB PhD Program Faculty

Erika L. Pearce

Metabolic signals that regulate immune responses

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor

Department of Oncology, School of Medicine
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bloomberg School of Public Health 

Erika Pearce

Research Overview

Research in my laboratory focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control immune responses, with a particular emphasis on how metabolism governs this process. Currently our work is focused on the role of metabolism in T cell differentiation and function, as well as in regulating other immune cell types, such as macrophages. My laboratory is committed to using a wide variety of approaches to address key questions in immune cell metabolism in vitro and in vivo, and how this impacts protective immunity to infection and cancer. We hope that our work will allow us to develop new ways to target immune cell longevity, differentiation, and function through metabolism, with a long-term goal of mitigating human disease.

Additional Titles

Co-Director, Cancer Immunology Program

 

 

Topic Areas

Selected Publications

  • Villa M, Sanin DE, Apostolova P, Corrado M, Kabat AM, Cristinzio C, Regina A, Carrizo GE, Rana N, Stanczak MA, Baixauli F, Grzes KM, Cupovic J, Solagna F, Hackl A, Globig AM, Hässler F, Puleston DJ, Kelly B, Cabezas-Wallscheid N, Hasselblatt P, Bengsch B, Zeiser R, Sagar, Buescher JM, Pearce EJ, Pearce EL. Prostaglandin E2 controls the metabolic adaptation of T cells to the intestinal microenvironment. Nature Communications, 2024.
  • Edwards-Hicks J, Apostolova P, Buescher JM, Maib H, Stanczak MA, Corrado M, Klein Geltink RI, Maccari ME, Villa M, Carrizo GE, Sanin DE, Baixauli F, Kelly B, Curtis JD, Hassler F, Patterson AE, Field CS, Caputa G, Kyle R, Soballa M, Cha M, Paul H, Martin J, Grzes K, Flachsmann L, Mitterer M, Zhao L, Winkler F, Rafei-Shamsabadi DA, Meiss F, Bengsch B, Zeiser R, Puleston DJ, O’Sullivan D, Pearce EJ, and Pearce EL. Phosphoinositide acyl chain saturation drives CD8+ effector T cell signaling and function. Nature Immunology,2023.
  • Baixauli F, Piletic K, Puleston DJ, Villa, M, Field CS, Flachsmann LJ, Quintana A, Rana N, Edwards-Hicks J, Matsushita M, Stanczak M, Grzes K, Kabat A, Fabri M, Caputa G, Kelly B, Corrado M, Musa Y, Duda K, Mittler G, O’Sullivan D, Sesaki H, Jenuwein T, Buescher JM, Pearce EJ, Sanin DE, and Pearce EL. An LKB1-mitochondria axis controls Th17 effector function. Nature, 2022. 
  • Puleston DJ, Baixauli F, Sanin DE, Edwards-Hicks J, Villa M, Kabat AM, Kamiński MM, Stanckzak M, Weiss HJ, Grzes KM, Piletic K, Field CS, Corrado M, Haessler F, Wang C, Musa Y, Schimmelpfennig L, Flachsmann L, Mittler G, Yosef N, Kuchroo VK, Buescher JM, Balabanov S, Pearce EJ, Green DR, Pearce EL. Polyamine metabolism is a central determinant of helper T cell lineage fidelity. Cell, 2021.
  • Kelly B, Carrizo GE, Edwards-Hicks J, Sanin DE, Stanczak MA, Priesnitz C, Flachsmann LJ, Curtis JD, Mittler G, Musa Y, Becker T, Buescher JM, Pearce EL. Sulfur sequestration promotes multicellularity during nutrient limitation. Nature, 2021.