Commensal bacteria (red) reside amongst the mucus (green) and epithelial cells (blue) of a mouse small intestine.
Gut bacteria have a profound impact on health by aiding digestion, providing nutrients and metabolites, and working with the immune system to fend off pathogens. Some gut bacteria, however, have been implicated in progression of cancers of the gut and associated organs.
Sam Light, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, has been named one of this y
A. Murat Eren (Meren), Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and COM member, who uses computational approaches to study microbial ecological evolution was awarded the 2021 American Society for Microbiology Award for Early Career Environmental Research. For an in depth profile please click here.
Tatyana Golovkina, PhD, Professor of Microbiology, who studies how the immune system detects, reacts to, and is subverted by retroviral infections, has been awarded the 2020 KT Jeang Retrovirology prize. The award is presented to established retrovirologists who have made outstanding contributions to the field during their careers.
Graduate Student Evelyn Campbell, review titled " B cells and the microbiota: a missing connection in food allergy " was published in Mucosal Immunology journal. Evelyn Campbell is a graduate student in Cathy Nagler lab. You can view the entire review here.
The health, safety and well-being of our BSD community, on and off-campus, is our top priority. We will continue to update the community regularly to keep you informed. Information on BSD-specific resources can be found here. Also please continue to consult the University and University of Chicago Medicine guidance as appropriate.
The innate immune system is the body’s first line of defense against infection. Its job is to detect bacteria and viruses and begin taking general steps to fight back, like triggering inflammation and recruiting immune cells to ward off the invaders. Sometimes this is enough to clear an infection. When it's not, the innate immune system can activate the adaptive immune system we develop over our lifetimes (sometimes with the help of vaccines) to fight off specific pathogens like the flu or measles.
University of Chicago researchers have received a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to study how the molecular activity of the microbiome changes in response to the environment.
For nearly 20 years, Tatyana Golovkina, PhD, a microbiologist, geneticist and immunologist at the University of Chicago, has been working on a particularly thorny problem: Why are some people and animals able to fend off persistent viral infections while others can't?
Three University of Chicago faculty members are among the 2018 members of the National Academy of Sciences, announced May 1: Profs. Joy Bergelson, Olaf Schneewind and Richard Thaler.
These scholars, studying microbiology, evolution and behavioral economics, were among the 84 new members and 21 foreign associates recognized by their peers for “their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”
