Grant: Foundation Grant

The function of your digestive system is key to good health. During digestion food moves from the stomach to the small intestine, where absorption of nutrients occurs, and finally to the colon for elimination. Movement of food through the intestines requires precise control. Not only does the gut move and digest food, but while doing so it must protect the rest of the body from ingested pathogens and from the microbes that live in its lumen. These microbes are essential for health, but must remain in the intestine or they can cause harm. Thus the gut has a dual role: digestion and defense. Digestion and defense are sufficiently complex that a "brain" is required to regulate and control them. This brain in the gut is called the enteric nervous system (ENS). The ENS is composed of nerves and specialized cells called enteric glial cells. Enteric glial cells were originally thought to be passive support cells, but through my research we know that nerves and glial cells actively communicate with each other by releasing chemical messengers. This bi-directional nerve-glial communication is important for the ENS to control the movement of food through the gut and for defense. Alterations in chemical communication in the ENS appears to be responsible for many of the symptoms of gastrointestinal disease. The vision of my research program is to discover new ways to alleviate the symptoms of gut disorders through studies of enteric nerve-glial communication. I will study the movements of the gut in the normal state and establish how nerves and glial cells communicate to regulate them. I will build on this information to find new ways to correct the abnormal gut movements that occur in disease. I will also focus on how microbes in the gut influence the neural and glial regulation of gut functions in health and disease. My ultimate goal is to develop better treatments for debilitating conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome.