Dr. Curiel’s initial work in human immunology focused on anti-pathogen immunity that helped to develop important research techniques and collaborations that supported current endeavors. At the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, Dr. Curiel was fortunate to get much on-the-job experience in dendritic cell biology.

These efforts grounded his work that was done at Tulane where is group extended these early dendritic efforts to include studies of dendritic cells in the tumor microenvironment, helping launch detailed studies by many investigators on tumor microenvironmental cells.

Studies extended to include tumor microenvironmental regulatory T cells (Tregs) which spawned many additional studies of their microenvironmental effects in cancer, among his most important contributions to date. The current focus is understanding immune dysregulation in cancer as a means to understand cancer immunopathogenesis and develop novel cancer immunotherapies.

Immunopathogenic pathway studies now also include immune co-signaling. We also study age effects on immunity and immunotherapy, and immunopathogenesis of autoimmune disease. Discoveries are put into clinical trials for testing. The group has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1987.