Necroptosis and pathogen infection

Cell death is a powerful host response to control and restrict pathogen growth and replication in the host.  Interestingly, many pathogens have developed strategies to inhibit host cell death.  Indeed, many pathogens have been shown to encode inhibitors of the necroptosis adaptor RIPK3.  However, there are also examples of pathogens that sensitize the infected host to necroptosis.  A major effort in the lab is to understand how necroptosis influence the host immune response against different pathogens.  Moreover, we are also interested in identifying additional pathogen effectors that interact with the necroptosis machinery.