Benjamin Steinberg

My research focuses on how the body’s nervous system monitors and controls inflammation. Direct cellular communication between neurons and immune cells allows the nervous system to modify how the immune system behaves in diseases such as sepsis, pain and heart failure. As we better understand the interaction between the nervous and immune systems, we can start to build therapeutics that target the nervous system to diagnose and treat inflammation-driven illnesses.

My laboratory works towards this translational objective in two ways: First, we study how powerful immune molecules (called cytokines) activate the body’s sensory nervous system in order to alert the brain to ongoing and potentially injurious inflammation. This project has implications in the development of new technologies for the diagnosis and monitoring of inflammatory diseases. Second, we are developing nerve stimulation paradigms that can modify the immune response in order to treat damaging inflammation. By targeting the nervous system, we will inform the develop of novel nervous system-based diagnostic tools and anti-inflammatory therapies.