Located in the Schuster Family Transplantation Research Center (TRC) in the historic Boston Lying-In Hospital, the Murakami Lab is home to a group of young scientists engaged in scientific innovation spanning the spectrum from basic science to clinical research. The Murakami Lab’s research focuses on understanding the mechanism of autoimmune kidney diseases and kidney transplant rejection. The immune system in our body is trained to distinguish self (own tissues and cells) and non-self (bacteria or viral pathogens), and to eliminate non-self to protect ourselves from illness. In autoimmune conditions, however, the boundary becomes fuzzy and the immune system attacks self-organs. The kidney is one of the most susceptible organs for autoimmune disease, but no specific treatments are available due to lack of fundamental understanding of the disease mechanisms. Our overall goal is to unlock the mechanism of keeping the boundary clear, by studying animal models and patient samples, and to apply this self-protection mechanism to treat autoimmune kidney diseases and transplant rejection.