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Carrie Sokol

@carriesokol.bsky.social
2.1K followers 957 following 38 posts

Immunologist & physician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School interested in all things itchy and allergic.

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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Thanks for highlighting our work!
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Thanks for highlighting our work!
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Reposted by Carrie Sokol
ImmuNoah's Ark (Noe Rodriguez) @immunoah.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Really nice to see out this interesting study from @carriesokol.bsky.social Sensory neuronal mTORC1 kinase signaling establishes neuroimmune memory that initiates allergic immunity: Immunity www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
cell.com
Sensory neuronal mTORC1 kinase signaling establishes neuroimmune memory that initiates allergic immunity
How cumulative environmental allergen exposures are encoded by peripheral sensory neurons to shape immune responsiveness is unclear. Zhu et al. show that protease allergens induce an mTORC1-dependent,...
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Reposted by Carrie Sokol
Jonathan Kagan @jkagan1.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A metabolic regulator in neurons controls allergic inflammation. Fascinating and important study by Sokol and colleagues key insight to a growing health problem. Kudos to the authors. www.cell.com/immunity/ful... @carriesokol.bsky.social
cell.com
Sensory neuronal mTORC1 kinase signaling establishes neuroimmune memory that initiates allergic immunity
How cumulative environmental allergen exposures are encoded by peripheral sensory neurons to shape immune responsiveness is unclear. Zhu et al. show that protease allergens induce an mTORC1-dependent,...
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
8/ I’m grateful to Xueping for the creativity and persistence behind this work, and to our collaborators who made it possible. I love the idea that the nervous system can carry a trace of an encounter with the environment and use it to shape immunity. Read the paper: www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
cell.com
Sensory neuronal mTORC1 kinase signaling establishes neuroimmune memory that initiates allergic immunity
How cumulative environmental allergen exposures are encoded by peripheral sensory neurons to shape immune responsiveness is unclear. Zhu et al. show that protease allergens induce an mTORC1-dependent,...
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
7/ A crucial caveat: these experiments were done in preclinical models. We have not shown that neuroimmune training occurs in people or that it explains any individual’s allergies. But it offers a new way to investigate why allergic responses can build with repeated exposure.
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
6/ The effect persisted for about three weeks in our models, then faded. That gives us a window into how an environmental encounter can shape a future immune response - and raises the question of whether this neuronal state could be reset.
static.klipy.com
Pressing the Reset Button
ALT: Pressing the Reset Button
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
5/ The surprise😲: the second exposure did not have to be to the same allergen. Neurons primed by papain also responded more strongly to house dust mite and Alternaria. They may be tuned to a shared feature of these allergens, rather than remembering one precise molecular identity.
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
4/ How is that heightened state maintained? Xueping found that allergen exposure activates mTORC1 signaling in sensory neurons and remodels their mitochondria. Disrupting either neuronal mTORC1 or mitochondrial function prevented the enhanced response to a later exposure.
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
3/ We found that an initial allergen exposure left sensory neurons easier to activate. A later, low dose exposure produced more itch and a stronger response in the immune cells that help initiate allergic immunity. We call this neuroimmune training.
static.klipy.com
Sylvester Stallone as Rocky: Intense Training
ALT: Sylvester Stallone as Rocky: Intense Training
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
2/ We already knew that sensory neurons can detect certain allergens and signal to the immune system. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Xueping asked what happens after that first encounter. Does the neuron simply return to baseline, or does the exposure change how it responds next time?
sciencedirect.com
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
1/ Why can you encounter an allergen repeatedly before becoming allergic to it? In our new @cp-immunity.bsky.social paper, led by the wonderful Xueping Zhu, we asked whether the sensory neurons that first detect allergens might carry a record of earlier exposures. 🧵 www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
cell.com
Sensory neuronal mTORC1 kinase signaling establishes neuroimmune memory that initiates allergic immunity
How cumulative environmental allergen exposures are encoded by peripheral sensory neurons to shape immune responsiveness is unclear. Zhu et al. show that protease allergens induce an mTORC1-dependent,...
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Reposted by Carrie Sokol
Kumar Thurimella, PhD @00kumar.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
1/ Our paper is out today in @cp-cellsystems.bsky.social. We used protein language models and deep learning to identify candidate protease allergens in the human microbiome. www.cell.com/cell-systems...
cell.com
Identifying microbial protease allergens through protein language model-guided homology
Thurimella et al. introduce a deep learning framework using protein language models to predict allergenic proteases in the microbiome. The model identified hundreds of candidate allergenic proteases i...
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Why does this matter? If microbes in or on us can produce functional allergens, this could help explain: • Why certain microbiota associate with allergic disease • How environmental exposure and microbial ecology intersect • Why allergen exposure isn’t just “outside in” (8/x)
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Huge thanks to the incredible collaborative team who made this possible. This is just the beginning. The allergenic universe may be far larger - and far more biologically integrated - than we imagined. 🧬🤖 (7/x) #Allergy #Immunology #Microbiome #MachineLearning #AI #Neuroimmune
media.tenor.com
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
More broadly, this work reframes allergens not as a static list… …but as a predictable functional category. And once something is predictable, it becomes discoverable. And once it’s discoverable, it becomes targetable. (6/x)
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
That means we now have: ✔️ A discovery pipeline for identifying protease allergens ✔️ Experimental validation of microbiota-derived allergens ✔️ Evidence that our allergen universe is likely much broader than we thought (5/x)
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
The model predicted novel candidate allergens from gut and oral microbes. So we tested two of them experimentally and found that these previously undescribed hits from our candidate list (one serine and one cysteine protease) showed bona fide allergenic activity. (4/x)
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a bear standing on its hind legs reaching for a branch
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
We asked: “What proteins out there look like allergens?” Including proteins produced by the human microbiota. (3/x)
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
We focused on serine protease allergens — a major class of environmental triggers. Instead of cataloging known allergens, we trained ML models to identify the features that distinguish allergenic vs non-allergenic proteases. Not just sequence similarity — functional logic. (2/x)
media.tenor.com
big bird from sesame street singing one of these things is not like the other ..
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
What if we’ve dramatically underestimated the allergenic universe? Our new collaborative paper asks a simple but radical question: Can we teach AI what makes a protease an allergen — and then use it to discover new ones? (1/x) 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Identifying microbial protease allergens through protein language model-guided homology
Emerging research links the gut, skin, and oral microbiomes to allergies, with serine proteases (SPs) identified as potential allergens. This study le…
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Thanks for the highlight @immunoah.bsky.social ! I had an amazing time sharing our new science!
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Meet my lab, friends! www.linkedin.com/posts/mgbres...
linkedin.com
🤧 Why do we get allergies, and why do they make us itch, sneeze and swell? | Mass General Brigham Research
🤧 Why do we get allergies, and why do they make us itch, sneeze and swell? Caroline Sokol, MD, PhD, an allergy researcher at Mass General Brigham and the Food Allergy Science Initiative, is uncoverin...
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Reposted by Carrie Sokol
Achille Broggi🧪👨🏼‍🔬🔬 @achillebro.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
👨‍🔬🎉Kicking off my bluesky presence by posting our lab's achievement! Our lab's first study is now out in Cell ! We show that IFN-λ induces ZBP1/CASP-8/GSDMC-dependent pyroptosis in gut epithelial cells impairing tissue repair post-colitis.#IBD #Immunology 🧵https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1k2OAL7PXqSL5
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
In Rio for ACMI 2024! All barrier (or mucosal, but we can fight over it) all the time!
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
But many questions remain! What controls the function of these cells? Is this pathway truly conserved in humans? Does this IL-3 pathway explain why some dupilumab non-responders do so well with JAK inhibitors? What questions do you have? (15/x)
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a toy that says i have a question on it
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
So, we think that GD3 cells and their IL-3 act as a neuroimmune rheostat involved in allergen function. Ramp it up – develop allergen hyperresponsiveness. Tone it down – develop allergen ignorance. (14/x)
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two men are sitting next to each other and one of them is pretending to sneeze
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
All of this was upstream of allergen-induced DC migration and Th2 differentiation. If you blocked this pathway at any step, you lost the initiation of the adaptive immune response to allergens. (13/x)
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a basketball game is being played in front of a crowd with a scoreboard that says stl on it
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
Il3ra signaling in neurons led to JAK2 phosphorylation, which drove the immediate itch response, and STAT5 phosphorylation, which drove the downstream transcription of Tac1 (gene for Substance P and a couple other neuropeptides). (12/x)
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a cat is sitting in a car with its paws on the steering wheel
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
IL-3 acted upon Il3ra-expressing sensory neurons that were enriched in the PEP1 subset (these neurons aren’t stereotypically associated with itch, but they are required for protease-allergen induced itch and they release the neuropeptide Substance P). (11/x)
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two men are standing next to each other in a room talking .
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
GD3 cells – but not other gd cell types – produced IL-3 under homeostatic conditions and after T cell receptor activation. This GD3-derived IL-3 was necessary for the itch response to allergens. (10/x) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A γδ T cell–IL-3 axis controls allergic responses through sensory neurons - Nature
A γδ T cell–IL-3 signalling axis is defined that controls the allergen responsiveness of cutaneous sensory neurons, leading to evidence for an immune rheostat that governs sensory neuronal responses t...
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
*Now, DETCs aren’t present in humans because hominoids have a mutation in the gene that is required for their development. But, GD3s don’t require that gene (Skint1), which means that they might represent the epidermal gd T cell subset seen in humans. (9/x)
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
There are several gamma/delta cell types in the skin – the usual suspects in rodents are the dermal g/d cells and DETCs*, but there is another very poorly recognized epidermal g/d T cell subset that we simplistically referred to as GD3s (3rd skin g/d cell). (8/x)
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a close up of a man 's face with a #schitts creek logo in the background
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
To start his hunt for this putative cell, Cameron Flayer examined the immediate itch response to various protease allergens (plant, animal, fungal, and venom) and unexpectedly for us found that gamma/delta (g/d) T cells were required for allergen-induced itch. (7/x)
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a brown bear is standing on its hind legs in the woods
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
We hypothesized that an innate immune cell sets the allergen-responsiveness threshold of sensory neurons to allergens. This idea was inspired by work by Brian Kim’s group showing that IL-4 and IL-13 primed sensory neuronal responses to histamine. (6/x) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Sensory Neurons Co-opt Classical Immune Signaling Pathways to Mediate Chronic Itch
Mammals have evolved neurophysiologic reflexes, such as coughing and scratching, to expel invading pathogens and noxious environmental stimuli. It is …
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
This question about the inter-individual heterogeneity of allergic responses initiated a major focus in the lab. What determined the set-point or activation threshold of sensory neurons to allergens? (5/x)
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a woman wearing a hat is looking through a magnifying glass and the caption says jonny is it there
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
This finding was very cool, but it presented a problem. If we all have sensory neurons (we all get itchy every once in a while, don’t we), and if we are all surrounded by the same amount of allergens, why aren’t we all allergic? (4/x)
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two men are sitting next to each other and one of them is pretending to sneeze
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
We found that this substance P activated allergic-skewing dendritic cells to start up the entire allergic immune response. (3/x)
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a man in a suit and tie is jumping in the air while sitting on a couch .
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
Four years ago, we found that the immune system doesn't directly detects allergens. Instead, it is the sensory nervous system that directly detects protease allergens leading to an itch response and the release of a neuropeptide called substance P. (2/x) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Substance P Release by Sensory Neurons Triggers Dendritic Cell Migration and Initiates the Type-2 Immune Response to Allergens
Dendritic cells (DCs) of the cDC2 lineage initiate allergic immunity and in the dermis are marked by their expression of CD301b. CD301b+ dermal DCs re…
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
Alert! New science from the lab is hot off the press! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Before I describe the findings, let’s set the stage. The lab has always been interested with how allergens are detected. They don’t infect us, so why do we detect them and who does the detecting? (1/x)
nature.com
A γδ T cell–IL-3 axis controls allergic responses through sensory neurons - Nature
A γδ T cell–IL-3 signalling axis is defined that controls the allergen responsiveness of cutaneous sensory neurons, leading to evidence for an immune rheostat that governs sensory neuronal responses t...
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 22/08/2024
Dusting off my social media profiles as we get ready to share some exciting new findings on the neuroimmune control of allergic immunity. Stay tuned for more updates!
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snow white from snow white and the seven dwarfs is looking at a ghost .
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Carrie Sokol @carriesokol.bsky.social · 16/11/2023
Science communication is not always easy, but part of being an academic is teaching everyone - not just our peers - about what and why we “science”. It was great to be a part of this and so excited to see future segments! immunologyexplained.aai.org
immunologyexplained.aai.org
Immunology Explained - Home
The immune system intersects with almost every aspect of human health and disease. Its functions, both when things are going well and when things go wrong, are immensely complicated. The American Asso...
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Reposted by Carrie Sokol
Rod Rahimi @rodrahimi.bsky.social · 13/11/2023
Cool paper by Jason Griffith and the Luster lab on a novel mechanism of Treg suppression. IL-33 instructs ST2+ Tregs to produce the IL-1 antagonist IL-1Ra, which restrains IL-1-mediate innate immunity. #Immunosky www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Regulatory T cell-derived IL-1Ra suppresses the innate response to respiratory viral infection - Nat...
Luster and colleagues report that lung-resident ST2+ regulatory T cells secrete the IL-1 antagonist IL-1Ra to suppress neutrophils and early innate immune responses to influenza virus infection.
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