John R. Lukens, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) at the University of Virginia.


Dr. Lukens is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) at the University of Virginia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 2008 for his work describing roles for PD-1 and T cell exhaustion in persistent liver infection. For his postdoctoral training, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he identified molecular pathways involved in innate cytokine production and cell death. In Fall 2014, John returned to the University of Virginia to launch his lab that is focused on understanding the role of the innate immune system in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Twitter handle: @LukensJohnR 

Lab website: www.lukenslab.com

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.