Research in the Gale laboratory is focused on understanding the processes that trigger and control
innate immunity and inflammation to program the immune response against RNA virus infection, and to
define the virus-host interactions that control viral replication and the outcome of infection and
immunity. We are also focused on defining the systems biology and innate immune interactions of acute
and chronic microbial infection toward building interventions to fight disease and improve global health.
The laboratory is a member of the University of Minnesota (UMN) Institute on Infectious Diseases, the
UMN Center for Immunology, and is a component of the NIH Systems Immunogenics Consortium, the
Immune Mechanisms of Protection Against Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (IMPAc-TB) consortium, the
United World Antiviral Research Network (UWARN), and the consortium for Development and
Advancement of Broad-spectrum Respiratory Antivirals (DABRA) supported by the Department of
Defense. We are members of the HIV Reservoir consortium supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.
The Gale laboratory has active research programs focused on understanding immune
control of infection by flaviviruses including West Nile virus, Zika virus, Powassan virus, and others,
hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B viruses, Oropouche virus, chikungunya virus, HIV, SIV, Hanta virus, SARS-
CoV-2 and contemporary coronaviruses, and influenza viruses. We are also engaged in programs of
study to understand the role of innate immunity and immune programming in maternal-fetal health,
and vaccine programming of the immune response. Our research team is working at the forefront of
innate immunity to understand the immunomodulatory/antiviral actions of innate immune genes and
interferons, and to develop small molecule innate immune agonists as antiviral mediators for the clinical
treatment of virus infection and as immune modulators to program the immune response.
The laboratory works closely with collaborators within academic, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical institutions in the
USA and across the world to conduct research to build new or improved vaccines and therapeutics to
enhance global health in the fight against virus infections. We are a member lab of the UMN Institute for
Molecular Virology. We are committed to teaching and training scientists to be educators, researchers,
and clinicians in the areas of immunology, virology, public and global health, systems biology, and
microbial infection and immunity.