Arc Institute Adds Two New Labs; Announces 2025 Cohort of Innovation Investigators and Ignite Awardees

John Pluvinage, MD, PhD, investigates the overlap between autoimmunity and neurodegeneration. As a physician-scientist, his research aims to decipher the mechanisms of and design targeted treatments for undiagnosed autoimmunity in rare neurological mystery cases, common dementias, and healthy brain aging.

John received his BS in Bioengineering and then MD and PhD from Stanford, investigating mechanisms of microglial aging and rejuvenation. He recently completed his clinical neurology residency and postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF, where he will join as an incoming Assistant Professor of Neurology. His research has been recognized by a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists, a NIH K08 Career Development Award, and the American Academy of Neurology's S. Weir Mitchell Award.

Maya Arce, PhD, uses genomic screening and gene editing to understand how genetic variation influences immune cell behavior and autoimmune disease risk. Her lab aims to move beyond studying individual genetic variants to investigating how combinations of variants together determine disease susceptibility. Using CRISPR screens and single-cell genomics, her work focuses on uncovering the regulatory mechanisms that control T cell identity and function, with the goal of identifying new therapeutic targets for autoimmune diseases.

Maya received her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from UCSF, where she worked in former Ignite Awardee Alex Marson's lab studying gene regulatory networks in T cells. Maya’s doctoral research on MED12's role in governing T cell rest and activation was published in Nature in December 2024. Her work has been driven by a personal connection to autoimmune disease and a commitment to bridging genomics, biochemistry, and molecular biology to understand the mechanistic basis of immune dysfunction.

The Abu-Remaileh Lab studies how lysosomes regulate cellular and organismal health, with a focus on lipid metabolism and neurodegeneration. By combining biochemistry, genetics, proteomics, and metabolomics, the lab discovers fundamental mechanisms of lysosomal biology and identifies new therapeutic strategies for diseases ranging from lysosomal storage disorders to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Their work has led to the discovery of new lysosomal proteins, such as identifying CLN5 as the lysosomal BMP synthase, pathways that control lipid homeostasis, and druggable targets for restoring lysosomal function.

The Allen Lab aims to understand fundamental principles underlying the homeostasis, plasticity, and resilience of cells and circuits in the mammalian brain. Their approach bridges molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience to obtain comprehensive insights into mechanisms of brain function and dysfunction at multiple scales. To answer previously intractable questions and expand our ability to engineer biological systems, they develop new technologies that span computation, synthetic biology, imaging, genomics, and neuroscience, with a focus on studying how the brain establishes and maintains physiological function, how these processes are disrupted with damage or age, and how we might repair or rejuvenate the brain.

The Fischbach Lab studies the mechanisms of microbiome-host interactions using two key technologies they recently developed: a complex 119-member defined gut community that serves as an analytically manageable but biologically relevant system for experimentation, and new genetic systems for common species from the microbiome. Using these systems, they investigate mechanisms at both the community and strain levels to understand how the microbiome produces molecules that impact host physiology, modulates immune function, and maintains stability. Their goal is to learn rules that will enable the design of engineered microbial communities for therapeutic purposes.

The Listgarten Lab develops statistical machine learning and AI methods to solve problems in molecular biology, with a special focus on protein engineering and related topics. Their purely computational group spans forward-looking methodological development to tight, multi-year collaborations with wetlab scientists. Current work includes computational methods for protein design and optimization for properties such as expression, fluorescence, binding, and stability, as well as related methods for molecule design and chemical reactions. Previous areas of focus include statistical genetics and epigenetics, CRISPR guide design, LCMS proteomics, and immunoinformatics.

The Spitzer Lab studies how the immune system coordinates its activity to execute immune responses against cancer. The lab blends experimental and computational approaches, including high-dimensional single-cell analysis and systems immunology methods, to understand the complex circuits and regulatory processes that guide immune system decision-making. Their work examines the systemic impact of cancer on immune function, T cell priming in cancer, and mechanisms of effective immunotherapy in patients. A central goal is to harness immune responses to fight cancer by designing more effective immunotherapies for breast cancer, head and neck cancer, and other malignancies.

The Svensson Lab discovers previously unrecognized endogenous peptides that modulate appetite, metabolism, and disease pathways. By integrating computational prediction, proteomics, pharmacology, genetics, and cross-species in vivo validation, the lab delineates mechanisms and identifies bioactive peptides with therapeutic potential for obesity and metabolic disease. Recent work includes developing AI-driven approaches to identify novel peptide hormones and discovering BRP, a naturally occurring molecule that suppresses appetite and promotes weight loss in animal models without the side effects associated with current GLP-1 drugs. The goal is to advance fundamental biology and uncover new mechanisms of peptide signaling for treating metabolic disorders.

The Yang Lab develops new molecular approaches to decode the meaning, mechanisms, and therapeutic relevance of crosstalk between the brain and body. Using chemical biology, proteomics, single-cell profiling, imaging, and functional approaches, the lab studies how proteins and immune cells communicate across the blood-brain barrier to maintain brain health. Their work has revealed that the blood-brain barrier is far more permeable than previously thought, with many Alzheimer's disease risk genes expressed in barrier cells. By deciphering the molecular logic of brain-body communication, their research aims to enable new drug delivery strategies and cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.