Ragon Institute

Lab Overview

The Pillai lab has made fundamental discoveries about immune cells called B lymphocytes. This work has led to novel treatments currently in use in patients with B cell leukemias and autoimmune diseases. This laboratory also studies how immune cells can “go rogue” in autoimmune diseases like systemic sclerosis and IgG4-related disease, in patients with genetic disorders of the immune system, and in COVID-19 and other severe viral infections and uses the knowledge gained to collaborate with colleagues on clinical trials.

The Pillai lab explores the contributions of B cells to the development and function of T follicular helper cells and cytotoxic CD4+ T cells. We study these cells and their subsets in the context of inflammatory diseases like systemic sclerosis, IgG4-related disease, atherosclerosis, and COVID-19. We also explore how chromatin changes, including DNA methylation, influence B and T cell lymphocyte development, and B cell-T cell collaboration and immune function. We are interested in the development of subsets of T follicular helper cells and how alterations in T and B cell collaboration can drive different types of memory B cell responses, alter the durability of antibody responses, and may be of causal importance in severe infections like COVID-19. We also investigate how novel single-gene mutations in humans alter regulatory T cell function and lead to a breakdown in B cell tolerance and thus cause autoimmunity.