Dr. Littman received his PhD and MD from Washington University in 1980 and was a postdoctoral fellow in Richard Axel’s laboratory at Columbia University. He was Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, before joining NYU, where he is the Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology at the Skirball Institute and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  Dr. Littman is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, past president of the American Association of Immunologists, and recipient of several scientific awards, including the Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine and the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Sciences.  His laboratory applies molecular and genetics tools to study how T lymphocytes develop and participate in inflammation and how commensal microbiota influence immune homeostasis and pathogenesis.