The Casanova lab is using SNF funding to work on a project titled: Human autoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons: major determinants of global infectious diseases. The project aims to test the hypothesis that anti-IFN-I autoantibodies are major determinants of West Nile encephalitis and critical influenza pneumonia.
Casanova studies the human genetic and immunological determinants of life-threatening infectious diseases. He searches for rare and common single-gene mutations that selectively compromise immunity of otherwise healthy individuals who are vulnerable to specific infectious diseases. He then searches for other causes disrupting the same mechanisms of host defense, and thus characterizes the causal mechanisms of life-threatening infectious diseases.
