The Bergsbaken Lab is part of the Center for Immunity and Inflammation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, NJ.
Our lab studies a subset of CD8+ T cells that traffic to the tissue and persist there after infection or immunization. These tissue-resident memory T cells (Trm) play an important role in early defense against pathogen challenge at barrier surfaces. We use bacterial and viral pathogens to understand the mechanisms of T cell activation, maintenance, and function in the intestine and other mucosal tissues in response to local infection.
The density of CD8+ T cells within solid tumors often correlates with improved prognosis, and our lab is also utilizing a mouse model of colorectal cancer to examine how adoptive CD8+ T cell immunotherapy can be improved using our findings from infection models.