Talal Chatila

Talal Chatila, MD is the Denise and David Bunning Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a senior physician in the Division of Immunology at Boston Children's Hospital. He also serves as the Director of the Food Allergy Program at Boston Children's Hospital. His research focuses on elucidating the role of T regulatory (Treg) cells in peripheral immunological tolerance and identifying novel genetic pathways that control Treg cell function in human diseases.

Dr. Chatila completed his medical education at the American University of Beirut School of Medicine in 1994. He joined the Division of Immunology at Boston Children's Hospital in 1985 and has held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of California in Los Angeles. In 2012, he was appointed to his current professorship at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Chatila's research centers on mechanisms involved in the breakdown of immune tolerance in both monogenic disorders of immunity and common allergic inflammatory disorders, with particular focus on asthma and food allergy. His laboratory has identified several genetic networks that regulate immune tolerance in humans, including those involving FOXP3, DOCK8, LRBA, and IL4R genes. His work on Treg cells as microbial sensors responding to microbiota signals via the Toll-like receptor-coupled adaptor MyD88 has provided insights into mucosal tolerance mechanisms. His group has also elucidated how inflammatory signals via the Notch pathway control Treg cell functions and established the role of pathogenic Treg cell reprogramming in tolerance breakdown to allergens.

His laboratory has made significant contributions to understanding the causes of tolerance breakdown in food allergy and allergic airway inflammation, identifying Treg cells as targets of subversion by disease pathways. Current research focuses on therapeutic strategies for re-establishing oral tolerance by antagonizing pro-allergic cytokines and pathways. His team is pursuing proof-of-concept studies using preclinical mouse models with the goal of translating these findings into clinical trials.

• Regulatory T cell biology in health and disease
• Role of microbiome in food allergy and asthma
• Genetic basis of immune dysregulation disorders
• Mechanisms of mucosal tolerance
• Notch signaling in immune regulation
• Therapeutic approaches for immune tolerance restoration

Dr. Chatila's research has significant implications for developing novel therapeutic approaches that re-establish immunological tolerance in diseases of immune dysregulation by manipulating regulatory T cell-specific molecular and metabolic interventions. His work bridges basic science discoveries with clinical applications for patients suffering from allergic and autoimmune conditions.

Dr. Chatila leads the Talal Chatila Laboratory at Boston Children's Hospital, which includes postdoctoral fellows, instructors, and research associates. His team comprises researchers with expertise in immunology, microbiome analysis, genetic studies, and translational research. Current team members include Louis-Marie Charbonnier, PhD (Assistant Professor of Pediatrics), Lauren Henderson, MD, MMSc (Associate Professor of Pediatrics), Emmanuel Stephen Victor, PhD (postdoctoral fellow focusing on food allergy and microbiota), and Hani Harb, PhD (postdoctoral fellow studying asthma and airway inflammation).