Researcher Spotlight: Matthew Woodruff

What is your professional background?
I am an immunologist by training. I graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2008 with a BS in biotechnology and received my doctorate at Harvard University in 2014. My early training focused on the fundamentals of vaccine biology – how does our immune system respond to vaccination and can we instruct it to do it better? In 2017, I switched my focus towards human immunology and the investigation of the intersection between infection and autoimmunity.

In what division do you work, and who is your mentor?
I work under Dr. Iñaki Sanz in the Lowance Center for Human Immunology and the Division of Rheumatology.

Briefly describe your research. Why is it important?
Our research seeks to answer long-standing questions about how autoimmune diseases might emerge following severe bouts of viral infection. Although immune systems are generally focused on fighting off outside invaders, it has been known for decades that severe infections can sometimes confuse your immune system into making antibodies that attack your own cells and tissues. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to better understand that process in large numbers of critically ill patients, and through the course of that work, we now know that this process is significantly more common than we had initially expected. We hope that by identifying and understanding this type of immune dysfunction, we might open up treatment possibilities that will improve patient outcomes in both the infection and recovery phases of COVID-19 and other diseases.

What do you like most about Emory?
The tight connection between the clinical and basic science worlds at Emory is truly unique, and directly resulted in the scientific impact our university has made throughout the pandemic. Our clinical colleagues’ willingness to do the hard work of patient recruitment and sample collection in the midst of a global crisis has been truly inspiring.

What is your favorite movie or TV show?
I’ve ceded all television and movie selection rights to my children. So, “WALL-E.”

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Those same kids have made sure that spare time is a fuzzy memory. I remember liking it, though.

What is a fun fact about you?
I have slowly come around on the world of large holiday inflatables.