Daniel B. McKim, an assistant professor of animal sciences, is a new affiliate faculty member at the Beckman Institute. He will be a member of the Multimodal Vascular Imaging within the Integrative Imaging research theme. His research program is focused on the bidirectional communication between the brain and immune system using mouse models of stress, inflammation, behavior, and disease. This is particularly relevant to understand how psychological stress alters immunity and to understand how inflammation may contribute to mood disorders.