Dr. Raulet's laboratory is dedicated to understanding recognition by natural killer cells and T cells, and is developing approaches to mobilize NK cells therapeutically against cancer. He is a world expert in cancer immunology and NK cell biology. His laboratory has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of both recognition by NK cells and immunoregulation of these important cytotoxic cells, in both cancer and viral infections. His findings have led to new understanding of requirements for pre-activating the cells, their modes of inhibition and processes of desensitization that occur in tumors. These findings, in turn, have enabled the development of new approaches to pre-activate NK cells for maximal NK killing of tumor cells, methods to block inhibition of NK cells, and approaches to reverse desensitization of NK cells, all of which have potential for immunotherapy of cancer. He has demonstrated efficacy of several of these approaches in various models of cancer in mice and pursues translation of these findings for treatments of human cancer.