Aune Lab
Thomas M. Aune, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology & Immunology
Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology
Research Focus
Our research focuses on the use of functional genomic and epigenetic approaches to understand gene regulation.
Our interests range from detailed mechanistic studies of the interferon-gamma gene, a key cytokine produced by cells of the innate and adaptive immune system, to the use of these approaches to gain new insights into human disease.
In addition, we have begun to focus our attention on long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and other species of RNAs that do not code for proteins. We have developed computational and analytic pipelines to identify these RNA species and interrogate their functions in the immune system. This includes the recognition that multiple lncRNA species are transcribed from key genetic loci that confer risk for developing human inflammatory disease.