David Farrar, Ph.D.

Dr. David Farrar earned his PhD in Immunology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and completed post-doctoral training at Washington University with Dr. Kenneth Murphy. He joined the Department of Immunology at UT Southwestern in 2001.

The Farrar Lab is generally interested in understanding how external signals, such as cytokines and neurotransmitters, regulate immune function. Our research has mainly focused on T cell development and responses to infection. More recently, we have broadened our interests to understand the regulation of immunity by the sympathetic nervous system and circadian rhythms.

Dr. Farrar’s lab has made important discoveries surrounding the role of type I interferon in T cell development including its role in promoting memory T cell development and suppressing type 2 T cells that regulate allergic diseases. Further, his lab has discovered an important role for adrenergic signaling in suppressing both innate and adaptive T cell inflammatory processes in the context of infection and systemic inflammation.

Undergraduate

Houston Baptist University (1989), Biology

Graduate School

Univ of Tx Southwestern Med Ct (1996), Immunology

• Circadian rhythms in immunity
• Cytokine gene regulation
• Cytokine regulation of T cell development
• Host/pathogen interactions
• Neural control of immune responses

Featured Publications

The ?2-adrenergic receptor controls inflammation by driving rapid IL-10 secretion.

Agaç D, Estrada LD, Maples R, Hooper LV, Farrar JD Brain Behav. Immun. 2018 Sep

Cutting edge: Type I IFN reverses human Th2 commitment and stability by suppressing GATA3.

Huber JP, Ramos HJ, Gill MA, Farrar JD J. Immunol. 2010 Jul 185 2 813-7

Reciprocal responsiveness to interleukin-12 and interferon-alpha specifies human CD8+ effector versus central memory T-cell fates.

Ramos HJ, Davis AM, Cole AG, Schatzle JD, Forman J, Farrar JD Blood 2009 May 113 22 5516-25

Cancer dormancy. VII. A regulatory role for CD8+ T cells and IFN-gamma in establishing and maintaining the tumor-dormant state.

Farrar JD, Katz KH, Windsor J, Thrush G, Scheuermann RH, Uhr JW, Street NE J. Immunol. 1999 Mar 162 5 2842-9

Adrenergic signaling controls early transcriptional programs during CD8+ T cell responses to viral infection.

Estrada LD, Agaç Çobanoglu D, Wise A, Maples RW, Çobanoglu MC, Farrar JD, PLoS One 2022 17 8 e0272017

Adrenergic regulation of immune cell function and inflammation.

Sharma D, Farrar JD, Semin Immunopathol 2020 Dec 42 6 709-717

Type I interferon suppresses memory Th2 cell cytokine secretion from allergic subjects.

Chen F, Rowe RK, Gill MA, Farrar JD, Allergy 2019 Sep

Adrenergic Signaling at the Interface of Allergic Asthma and Viral Infections.

Agaç D, Gill MA, Farrar JD Front Immunol 2018 9 736

Sympathetic neural signaling via the ?2-adrenergic receptor suppresses T-cell receptor-mediated human and mouse CD8(+) T-cell effector function.

Estrada LD, Agaç D, Farrar JD Eur. J. Immunol. 2016 May

IL-12 selectively programs effector pathways that are stably expressed in human CD8+ effector memory T cells in vivo.

Chowdhury FZ, Ramos HJ, Davis LS, Forman J, Farrar JD Blood 2011 Oct 118 14 3890-900

• Travel for Techniques Award
  American Association of Immunologists (2018)
• Mentor: Inaugural Careers in Immunology Fellowship
  American Association of Immunologists (2014)
• Minority Mentor-Trainee Award
  American Association of Immunologists (2006)
• Junior Faculty Travel Award
  American Association of Immunologists (2005)
• Special Fellow Award
  The Leukemia Society of America (2001)

• American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) (2010)
• American Association of Immunologists (2001)