Immune Calibration of Neuroendocrine Homeostasis

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Event details

Date 16.04.2025
Hour 10:1511:15
Speaker Chuan Wu, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Investigator, Experimental Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD (USA)
Location Online
Category Conferences - Seminars
Event Language English
BIOENGINEERING SEMINAR
 
Abstract:
Given that the gut functions as a major endocrine organ, the efficient translation from environmental cues to neuroendocrine responses are essential for body physiology. By harboring large quantities of microbiota and immune cells, the intestinal tissue is filled with a variety of immune regulators. Coordination between the immune system and the neuroendocrine system is essential for environmental sensation and host defense. Our work seeks to decipher the cellular and molecular mechanisms of immune-neural regulation for intestinal mucosal homeostasis. Further, the intestinal neuroendocrine responses are known to impact not only local but also systemic physiology. We establish that intestinal immune-mediated neuroendocrine responses orchestrate systemic physiology and inflammation.

Bio:
Dr. Wu completed his M.D. at Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine. During his doctoral research training at Münster University, Germany, he focused on T cell migration during inflammation and autoimmunity. He did his post-doctoral training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, while studying transcriptional regulation for T cell differentiation. In 2016, Dr. Wu joined the faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor and then moved to NIH's National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2017 as an Earl Stadtman Investigator, where he re-directed his research to understand intercellular regulation on mucosal barrier integrity. In 2024, Dr. Wu was appointed as a senior investigator at the NCI. Dr. Wu’s lab is utilizing interdisciplinary approaches to elucidate the crosstalk between the nervous system, microbial pathogens, and the immune system. Their findings on how intercellular communications modulate epithelial barrier function can potentially facilitate the discovery of novel therapeutic targets and approaches for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and colon cancer.
Dr. Wu has published many peer-reviewed manuscripts and review articles. His studies of cellular and molecular machineries of cell-cell interactions for regulating intestinal barrier function will have broad implications across the fields of immunology, physiology, and neuroendocrinology. His research will shed light on novel therapeutic targets to treat both intestinal inflammation and extraintestinal manifestations.


Zoom link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/65345027668