Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Parasitic worms can manipulate and subdue the immune responses of their host. This helps them to establish long-term infections in the gut. Understanding how parasitic worms do so helps to advise treatment for over a billion people worldwide who are currently infected. Understanding ways to manipulate gut immune responses may reveal new treatment strategies for inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohns and colitis. It is known that bile acids, which are important for fat digestion, can act as signals that reduce inflammation in the gut and can also control how quickly food moves through the gut. Previous research in the Reynolds Lab found that during parasitic worm infection in a mouse model, the concentration of bile acids in the small intestine is reduced. The overall hypothesis of my project is that these changes in bile acid levels affect the immune response during worm infections. Using a mouse model of parasitic worm infection, my research will investigate which gut immune cell types are responding to altered bile acid levels during infection. My work will also explore the impact of altered bile acid levels on immune responses in the small intestine. I will raise and lower bile acid levels in the mouse small intestine by feeding uninfected and parasite-infected mice specialized diets, and measure how this affects the speed of food passage through the small intestine and the levels of immune signalling molecules (cytokines). All experiments will be repeated 3 times to ensure the validity of my findings, and I will share my results in publications and conference presentations. My work will provide new information about how bile acids influence immune responses and help us to better understand changes in immune cell function during parasitic worm infection.