The human immune system is a powerful and tightly controlled system that is highly effective at reacting to unwanted intruders, but can at times over react to the body causing autoimmune diseases, such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease.

Hookworms and some other parasites are able to survive inside the human body, at least in part due to their ability to modulate the strenth of the human immune response to their presence. There is evidence that populations with chronic hook worm infections have markedly lower incidence of autoimmune diseases and some patients' symptoms have resolved after infection.

Sherwood is developing the molecules that hookworms use to control the immune system into drugs for the treament of autoimmune disorders.