UMCUniversity of Massachusetts Chan Medical School · Biology
The Immune Evasion Lab
Kiera L. Clayton · Worcester, Massachusetts
Research Focus
Dr. Kiera L. Clayton's lab at the University of Massachusetts Medical School focuses on understanding how the HIV virus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) evade the immune system, particularly by manipulating natural killer (NK) cells and macrophages. The lab investigates the interactions between these pathogens and immune cells to uncover new mechanisms of immune evasion, aiming to enhance the effectiveness of immune responses and develop new therapeutic strategies.
HIVNK cellsmacrophagesimmune evasionMycobacterium tuberculosis
Research Aims
3AIM 01Identify new NK cell ligands regulated by HIV
AIM 02Define the role of HIV accessory protein Vif in regulating MHC-I and NK cell activation
AIM 03Characterize mechanisms by which HIV and Mtb-infected macrophages evade immune clearance
Skills the Lab Values
cell cultureco-culture techniquesmass spectrometryRNA interferencemutagenesisflow cytometryWestern blottingmicroscopydata analysis in R or Python
Output against the department
Publications59bottom 15% of dept.877th of 1,033
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations3.3kbottom 24% of dept.781st of 1,033
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.