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Daniel E. Zak
Area of Expertise
Transcriptional networks, systems vaccinology, computational biology
Current Position
Senior Research Scientist
Degree
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware, 2006
Research Interests
The development of protective immunity, whether in response to vaccination or infection,
is critically dependent upon the molecular networks that are activated in innate immune
cells early after pathogen encounter. My research is focused on deciphering these networks
and understanding how they can be harnessed to enhance vaccine efficacy. One component of
my work is the analysis of crosstalk between innate immune receptor pathways and how these
interactions give rise to specificity in innate immune activation. Another is systems-level
analysis of innate and adaptive immune responses induced by candidate HIV vaccines to identify
molecular signatures that are associated with protective immunity. The knowledge gained from
these efforts will enable rational design of next-generation vaccines to overcome the most
challenging infectious diseases.
Selected Publications
Zak DE, Aderem A. 2009. Decoding host defense. Nat Biotechnol. 27:999-1001.
Litvak V, Ramsey SA, Rust AG, Zak DE, Kennedy KA, Lampano AE, Nykter M, Shmulevich I, Aderem A. 2009. Function of C/EBPdelta in a regulatory circuit that discriminates between transient and persistent TLR4-induced signals. Nat Immunol. 10:437-43.
Zak DE, Aderem A. 2009. Systems biology of innate immunity. Immunol Rev. 227:264-82.
Wu Z, Jia X, de la Cruz L, Su XC, Marzolf B, Troisch P, Zak D, Hamilton A, Whittle B, Yu D, Sheahan D, Bertram E, Aderem A, Otting G, Goodnow CC, Hoyne GF. 2008. Memory T cell RNA rearrangement programmed by heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein hnRNPLL. Immunity. 29:863-75.
Ramsey SA, Klemm SL, Zak DE, Kennedy KA, Thorsson V, Li B, Gilchrist M, Gold ES, Johnson CD, Litvak V, Navarro G, Roach JC, Rosenberger CM, Rust AG, Yudkovsky N, Aderem A, Shmulevich I. 2008. Uncovering a macrophage transcriptional program by integrating evidence from motif scanning and expression dynamics. PLoS Comput Biol. 4:e1000021.
Korb M, Rust AG, Thorsson V, Battail C, Li B, Hwang D, Kennedy KA, Roach JC, Rosenberger CM, Gilchrist M, Zak D, Johnson C, Marzolf B, Aderem A, Shmulevich I, Bolouri H. 2008. The Innate Immune Database (IIDB). BMC Immunol. 5:9-7.
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