Stefan Muljo

Dr. Stefan Muljo serves as Chief of the Integrative Immunobiology Section within the Laboratory of Immune System Biology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Appointed as a tenure-track investigator in 2008 and promoted to tenured Senior Investigator in 2016, he leads a research program focused on understanding post-transcriptional regulation of immune system development. His section is part of NIAID's Division of Intramural Research located at the NIH Main Campus in Bethesda, MD.

Dr. Muljo earned his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, with dissertation work partially conducted at UC Berkeley. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School's Immune Disease Institute, he joined NIAID in 2008. He currently serves as faculty for the NIH-OxCam and NIH-Penn graduate partnership programs, mentoring the next generation of immunologists and RNA biologists.

His research centers on RNA biology within the immune system, specifically investigating how gene expression programs are regulated post-transcriptionally through RNA-binding proteins, long non-coding RNAs, and microRNAs. Key research areas include hematopoietic stem cell differentiation, fetal versus adult hematopoiesis, regulation of human endogenous retroviruses, and the function of innate-like B-1 cells. His work has identified important molecular players like Lin28b as lineage-determining factors for fetal hematopoietic stem cells, with significant implications for regenerative medicine.

Analysis of Dr. Muljo's publication record reveals consistent contributions to understanding post-transcriptional regulation in immunology, with recent work focusing on RNA-binding proteins like MATRIN3 and RBM4, macrophage polarization in allergy, and B lymphocyte development. His research spans fundamental mechanisms of gene regulation to potential therapeutic applications, particularly in manipulating microRNAs for immune modulation.

Dr. Muljo actively participates in training through the NIH-OxCam Partnership Program, offering joint doctoral studentships to study fetal hematopoiesis in both mouse models and human systems. His laboratory employs an integrative systems biology approach combining genome-wide measurements with experimental perturbations to reverse engineer molecular logic of cellular differentiation.

His laboratory maintains an active research program investigating how post-transcriptional regulation contributes to immune system development and function, with particular interest in translating basic discoveries to improve human health, especially for conditions like sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. The section's work on fetal hemoglobin production has led to a pending patent application with potential therapeutic applications.