Ralph’s primary interest is with the immune system. He is interested in understanding the mechanism of self-tolerance and how failures of such lead to autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes and psoriasis. He is also interested in gene therapy approaches for causing and preventing autoimmune diseases. Through his collaboration with Laura Neidernhofer and her lab, Ralph’s research interest includes studying the effects of aging on the immune system and immune senescence on our ability to maintain self-tolerance and immunity to pathogens.
Representative Publications:
Narasimhan A, Flores RR, Robbins PD, Niedernhofer LJ. Role of Cellular Senescence in Type II Diabetes. Endocrinology. 2021 Oct 1;162(10):bqab136. doi: 10.1210/endocr/bqab136. PMID: 34363464; PMCID: PMC8386762.
Yousefzadeh MJ, Flores RR, Zhu Y, Schmiechen ZC, Brooks RW, Trussoni CE, Cui Y, Angelini L, Lee KA, McGowan SJ, Burrack AL, Wang D, Dong Q, Lu A, Sano T, O'Kelly RD, McGuckian CA, Kato JI, Bank MP, Wade EA, Pillai SPS, Klug J, Ladiges WC, Burd CE, Lewis SE, LaRusso NF, Vo NV, Wang Y, Kelley EE, Huard J, Stromnes IM, Robbins PD, Niedernhofer LJ. An aged immune system drives senescence and ageing of solid organs. Nature. 2021 Jun;594(7861):100-105. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03547-7. Epub 2021 May 12. PMID: 33981041; PMCID: PMC8684299.
Flores RR, Carbo L, Kim E, Van Meter M, De Padilla CML, Zhao J, Colangelo D, Yousefzadeh MJ, Angelini LA, Zhang L, Pola E, Vo N, Evans CH, Gambotto A, Niedernhofer LJ, Robbins PD. Adenoviral gene transfer of a single-chain IL-23 induces psoriatic arthritis-like symptoms in NOD mice. FASEB J. 2019 Aug;33(8):9505-9515. doi: 10.1096/fj.201900420R. Epub 2019 Jun 6. PMID: 31170010; PMCID: PMC6662986.
Expansion of myeloid-derived suppressor cells with aging in the bone marrow of mice through a NF-κB-dependent mechanism. Flores RR, Clauson CL, Cho J, Lee BC, McGowan SJ, Baker DJ, Niedernhofer LJ, Robbins PD. Aging Cell. 2017 Jun;16(3):480-487. doi: 10.1111/acel.12571. Epub 2017 Feb 23.PMID: 28229533
