Pfisterer Lab – Tissue State Dynamics & Disease

Tissue State Dynamics & Disease

The Pfisterer Lab investigates how immune, stromal, and mechanical signals regulate tissue homeostasis and how their dysregulation drives inflammatory disease and cancer, with a particular focus on the skin.

Human skin is uniquely exciting due to its complexity. It is composed of structurally distinct compartments with specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and mechanical properties, and contains a diverse network of immune and non-immune cells that continuously interact to preserve tissue integrity.

During homeostasis, these cellular networks coordinate to maintain tissue function and resilience. In disease, these regulatory circuits become disrupted, leading to chronic inflammation or malignant transformation. Our goal is to define the mechanisms that control these tissue state transitions and to identify vulnerabilities that can be therapeutically targeted.