Gregory F. Wu, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Neurology

Washington University in St. Louis (WU)

The Wu lab is dedicated to understanding what triggers the development of immune responses in the central nervous system during health and disease. In particular the lab is focused on Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a disease that affects nearly 400,000 Americans. It is unclear how the immune system contributes to the development of inflammatory plaques throughout the brain and spinal cord in patients with MS. Ongoing research has centered on dendritic cells, a special class of immune cells capable of initiating a wide spectrum of lymphocyte responses. Several lines of evidence suggest that dendritic cells are critical during the pathogenesis of central nervous system inflammation. Much of this data has been derived from studying an animal model for MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Current work is aimed at understanding how dendritic cells are capable of initiating autoimmune reactions targeting the brain and spinal cord in EAE and MS.