Dr. Michael Gerner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Washington. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology from the University of Minnesota and completed postdoctoral training with Ronald Germain at the National Institutes of Health. His laboratory studies how the spatial organization of immune cells within tissues shapes the dialogue between innate and adaptive immunity. Using quantitative imaging, spatial analysis, and other high-dimensional approaches, including tools developed in his lab such as histo-cytometry, Ce3D, and CytoMAP, his group examines how dendritic cells and other innate cells organize local niches that direct T and B cell priming and differentiation. This work has revealed how lymph node microenvironments and lymphatic networks coordinate immune responses during vaccination, tuberculosis infection, allergic inflammation, and cancer. The overarching goal of his research is to understand how immunity operates in situ in order to inform more effective vaccines and immunotherapies.