Faculty

Richard M. Locksley, M.D.

Director, Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center
Professor, Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

University of California, San Francisco
513 Parnassus Avenue
Room S-1032B, Box 0795
San Francisco, CA 94143

Tel: (415) 476-3087
Fax: (415) 502-5081

Website: 
Locksley Lab

Programs: 
ImmunoX
Quantitative Biosciences UCSF (QB3)
Virology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Howard Hughes Medical Institute 

Dr. Locksley is the Director of the Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center (SABRE) and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology. He received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Harvard and his M.D. from the University of Rochester. After completing his residency at UCSF, he trained in infectious diseases at the University of Washington. Prior to his position as director of the SABRE Center, Dr. Locksley served 18 years as the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UCSF Medical Center. He is a member of the Pew Scholars Program Advisory Committee and the Lasker Basic Medical Research Awards Jury. Dr. Locksley is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Locksley's laboratory addresses the immune cells and tissue responses that occur during allergic, or type 2, immunity. This includes the processes by which naïve helper T cells differentiate to become allergy-supporting Th2 cells, but also the interactions of these cells with eosinophils, basophils, mast cells and alternatively activated macrophages that mediate activities in peripheral tissues. The laboratory increasingly focuses on innate immunity, particularly since the discovery of Group 2 innate lymphoid cells, or ILC2s, which are prominently involved in allergy. Importantly, the discovery of ILC2s initiated efforts to uncover the ‘ground state’ of allergy by investigating homeostatic pathways involving these cells that might provide insights regarding their primary function in the immune system and in homeostasis.

Dr. Locksley’s laboratory pioneered the use of mice genetically engineered to report cytokines expressed during allergic immune responses. Using these methods, the laboratory participated in the discovery of innate lymphoid type 2 cells, or ILC2s, and tuft cells, enigmatic epithelial cells of mucosal surfaces which activate tissue ILC2s and neural regulatory circuits, thus opening up entirely new avenues for discovery.

Selected Publications:
  1. Kotas ME, CM Moore, JG Gurrola II, SD Pletcher, AN Goldberg, R Alvarez, S Yamato, PE Bratcher, CA Shaughnessy, PL Zeitlin, I Zhang, Y Li, MT Montgomery, K Lee, EK Cope, RM Locksley, MA Siebold, ED Gordon. 2022. Il-13-programmed airway tuft cells produce PGE2, which promotes CFTR-dependent mucociliary function. JCI Insight 7:e159832.
  2. Schneider C, J Lee, S Koga, R Ricardo-Gonzalez, JC Nussbaum, LK Smith, SA Villeda, HE Liang, RM Locksley. 2019. Tissue-resident group 2 innate lymphoid cells differentiate by layered ontogeny and in situ perinatal priming. Immunity 50:1425-1438.
  3. O’Leary CE, C Schneider, RM Locksley. 2019. Tuft cells – systemically dispersed sensory epithelia integrating immune and neural circuitry. Annu Rev Immunol 37:47-72.
  4. Ricardo-Gonzalez RR, SJ Van Dyken, C Schneider, J Lee, JC Nussbaum, H-E Liang, D Vaka, WL Eckalbar, AB Molofsky, DJ Erle, RM Locksley. 2018. Tissue signals imprint ILC2 identity with anticipatory function. Nature Immunol 19:1093-1099.
  5. Vivier E, D Artis, M Colonna, A Diefenbach, JP Di Santo, G Eberl, S Koyasu, RM Locksley, ANJ McKenzie, RF Mebius, F Powrie, H Spits. 2018. Innate lymphoid cells: 10 years on. Cell 174:1054-1066.
  6. Kotas ME, RM Locksley. 2018. Why Innate Lymphoid Cells? Immunity 48:1081-1090.
  7. Schneider C, CE O’Leary, J von Moltke, H-E Liang, Q Yan Ang, PJ Turnbaugh, S Radhakrishnan, Michael Pellizzon, A Ma, RM Locksley. 2018. A metabolite-triggered tuft cell-ILC2 circuit drives small intestinal remodeling. Cell 174:271-284.
  8. Miller CN, I Proekt, J von Moltke, KL Wells, AR Rajpurkar, H Wang, K Rattay, IS Khan, TC Metzger, JL Pollack, AC Fries, WW Lwin, EJ Wigton, AV Parent, B Kyewski, DJ Erle, KA Hogquist, LM Steinmetz, RM Locksley, MS Anderson. 2018. Thymic tuft cells promote an IL-4-enriched medullary microenvironment and shape thymocyte development. Nature 559:627-631.
  9. Sui P, DL Wiesner, X Jinhao, Y Zhang, J Lee, SJ Van Dyken, A Iashua, C Yu, BS Klein, RM Locksley, G Deutsch, X Sun. 2018. Pulmonary neuroendocrine cells amplify allergic asthma responses. Science 360: eean8546. DOI: 10.1126/science.aan8546.
  10. Van Dyken SJ, H-E Liang, R Naikawadi, P Woodruff, P Wolters, D Erle, RM Locksley. 2017. Spontaneous chitin accumulation in airways and age-related fibrotic lung disease. Cell 169:497-509.
  11. Van Dyken SJ, JC Nussbaum, J Lee, AB Molofsky, H-E Liang, JL Pollack, RE Gate, GE Haliburton, CJ Ye, A Marson, DJ Erle, RM Locksley. 2016. A tissue checkpoint regulates type 2 immunity. Nat Immunol 17:1381-7.
  12. von Moltke J, M Ji, H-E Liang, RM Locksley. 2016. Tuft cell-derived IL-25 regulates an intestinal ILC2-epithelial response circuit. Nature 529:221-5.
  13. Nussbaum JC, SJ Van Dyken, J von Moltke, LE Cheng, A Mohapatra, AB Molofsky, EE Thornton, MF Krummel, A Chawla, H-E Liang, RM Locksley. 2013. Type 2 innate lymphoid cells control eosinophil homeostasis. Nature 502:245-8.
  14. Wu D, AB Molofsky, HE Liang, RR Ricardo-Gonzalez, HA Jouihan, JK Bando, A Chawla, RM Locksley. 2011. Eosinophils sustain adipose alternatively activated macrophages associated with glucose homeostasis. Science 332:243-7.
  15. Locksley RM. 2010. Asthma and allergic inflammation. Cell 140:777-83.