Dan R. Littman

About

Dan R. Littman is a professor in the Department of Cell Biology and holds the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professorship of Molecular Immunology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms involved in the specification of distinct T lymphocyte lineages during development in the thymus and in response to microbial challenges in peripheral tissues. His laboratory studies how thymocytes are specified to differentiate towards helper or cytotoxic lineages, characterizing transcription factors and epigenetic programs involved in lineage specification. Additionally, his work on peripheral T cells has led to the identification of the nuclear receptor RORgt, which is essential for the differentiation of Th17 cells, critical in mucosal defense and inflammatory diseases. Littman's research investigates how commensal microbes influence T cell differentiation, including regulatory T cells, and how these interactions can trigger systemic autoimmune diseases. His studies extend to understanding microbiota-immune system communication, the influence of microbial products on systemic immune responses, and the mechanisms of HIV pathogenesis, aiming to develop new therapies and vaccines.

Research topics

• Biology
• Biochemistry
• Cell biology
• Medicine
• Immunology
• Bioinformatics
• Microbiology

Selected publications

• Novel bile acid biosynthetic pathways are enriched in the microbiome of centenarians

  Nature · 2021 · 596 citations

  DOI

• Feeding-dependent VIP neuron–ILC3 circuit regulates the intestinal barrier

  Nature · 2020 · 339 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• TH17 cell heterogeneity and its role in tissue inflammation

  Nature Immunology · 2023-01-01 · 251 citations

  reviewOpen accessCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Niche-Selective Inhibition of Pathogenic Th17 Cells by Targeting Metabolic Redundancy

  Cell · 2020 · 110 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multimodal single-cell datasets characterize antigen-specific CD8+ T cells across SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and infection

  Nature Immunology · 2023-09-21 · 54 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The immune response to SARS-CoV-2 antigen after infection or vaccination is defined by the durable production of antibodies and T cells. Population-based monitoring typically focuses on antibody titer, but there is a need for improved characterization and quantification of T cell responses. Here, we used multimodal sequencing technologies to perform a longitudinal analysis of circulating human leukocytes collected before and after immunization with the mRNA vaccine BNT162b2. Our data in…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01AI023513

  NIH · $841k · 1995

• A network model of the gut host-microbe ecosystem in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

  NIH · $632k · 2014–2019

• NIH Grant R01AI033303

  NIH · $1.4M · 1997

Frequent coauthors

• Mary Jean Sunshine

  139 shared

• Vineet N. KewalRamani

  National Cancer Institute

  107 shared

• Steffen Jung

  Weizmann Institute of Science

  100 shared

• Richard Bonneau

  100 shared

• Nigel Killeen

  87 shared

• Wilfried Ellmeier

  Medical University of Vienna

  77 shared

• Nicolas Manel

  Inserm

  55 shared

• Derya Unutmaz

  Jackson Laboratory

  54 shared

Labs

• Health Tech HubPI

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