Grant: Project Grant

The intestine is under constant assault by infectious and physical insults. To counter these environmental challenges, this barrier organ has evolved various defensive measures to counter invasive pathogens and quickly repair itself after injury. The remarkable regenerative capacity of the gut relies on dynamic interactions between the immune system and stem cells that give rise to the epithelium, a thin layer of cells that protect our tissues from the outside world. However, the ways in which immune cells and stem cells coordinate tissue regeneration remains poorly understood. To discover new pathways that promote tissue healing, our group has turned to intestinal helminths, one of the most prevalent parasites of the animal kingdom. Helminths are multicellular worms that migrate through tissues leaving significant damage in their wake. Resistance to helminths requires striking changes to the intestinal epithelium that not only repair the damaged tissue, but also lead to parasite expulsion. Thus, parasitic helminth infection provides a powerful model system to investigate how immune-stem cell interactions orchestrate tissue regeneration. Using animal models of helminth infection to track how the immune response shapes the fate and function of intestinal stem cells, our studies will uncover previously unrecognized mechanisms of tissue repair that may lead to new therapies for regenerative medicine.