Dr. Aderem and his team of researchers focus on the innate immune system--the system responsible for the body's defense in the first hours of an encounter with a potential pathogen. The innate immune system also initiates local and sometimes systemic inflammatory responses that alert the body to the presence of potential threats and guides the development of subsequent adaptive immune responses that evolve in the weeks following infection. An uncontrolled inflammatory response can also lead to autoimmunity and atherosclerosis, diseases also being studied by Dr. Aderem's team.