Iliyan Iliev
Associate Professor
Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology
Weill Cornell Medical - New York City
Interests: Cancer, Host-Microbe Interaction, Host-Microbiome Interaction, Innate Immunity, Microbiome, Microbiota, Tumor Immunology
The mammalian gastrointestinal tract is colonized with diverse commensal microbial communities consisting of bacteria, fungi and viruses. The Iliev Laboratory studies the interaction between this commensal microbiota and the immune cells at the mucosal surfaces of the body. We are specifically focused on understanding the functional consequences of fungal microbiota (mycobiota) composition and metabolism to the host immunity and to bacterial populations in the gut. In this effort, we have developed in vivo models, model fungal strains, and bioinformatics pipelines aiding us with tools to study the role of gut fungi in mucosal immunity during health and during conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease, allergy and immunosuppression, where fungi can contribute to pathologies.
