1. Investigate molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate autoreactive T cell fate during thymic development and in peripheral tissues.

2. Define the role of autoreactive T cells in autoimmune diseases, with a focus on multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and autoimmune hepatitis.

3. Elucidate how tolerized autoreactive T cells influence tumor immune evasion and evaluate their reprogramming potential for cancer immunotherapy.

4. Translate findings from mouse models into human studies using tissue organoids, single-cell transcriptomics, and TCR sequencing to identify therapeutic targets.

1. Discovery of Clonal Eviction as a novel mechanism for autoreactive T cell tolerance — revealed that autoreactive CD8 T cells are not deleted in the thymus but instead prematurely exported as immature precursors that later differentiate into self-tolerant regulatory-like cells, redefining the classical view of central tolerance (Science, 2023).

2. Pathways controlling effector and helper T cell programming — identified CRTAM as a key driver of CD4⁺ cytotoxic T cell lineage commitment and uncovered nucleic acid sensing as a trigger for Th2 differentiation, providing new insights into how signals shape T cell fate (J Exp Med, 2016; Nat Commun, 2014).

3. Role of chemokine signaling in central tolerance — demonstrated how Sirpα⁺ dendritic cells and the chemokine receptor CCR2 orchestrate thymic tolerance and facilitate tumor immune evasion, highlighting the intersection of central tolerance and cancer biology (PLoS One, 2012).