Mads Gyrd-Hansen's research studies the fundamental signalling processes that control immune responses, with a particular focus on molecular mechanisms governing inflammatory signalling, cell death, and innate immunity. His work has contributed to the understanding of how signalling responses by immune receptors such as NOD2 and TNFR1 is controlled by the cellular machinery assembling and disassembling non-degradative ubiquitin chains linked via Lys63 and Met1 (also termed Linear ubiquitin). More recently, he also became interested in how translational regulation of TNFR1 and other immune receptors by upstream open reading frames (uORFs) influences receptor abundance and tissue responses to immune-derived cytokines.