Clinicn Investigator, Full Prf Surgery, Mass General Research Institute

Warshaw Family Professor of Surgery Harvard Medical School

Visiting Surgeon General and GI Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital

MD Tulane Univ. School of Medicine 1984

adrenalectomy; alkaline phosphatase; antigens neoplasm; butyrates; enterocytes; gut muscosal defense; host-pathogen interactions; ht29 cells; intestinal epithelia; intestinal microbiota; intestinal mucosa; intestines; laparoscopy; microbiome; parathyroidectomy

The Laboratory of Gastrointestinal Epithelial Biology works to unravel the molecular mechanisms that underlie the processes of growth and differentiation within intestinal epithelia, focusing on gut mucosal defense and how the host interacts with the intestinal microbiota..

The small intestine is lined by a simple columnar epithelium in which pluripotent, proliferating crypt cells (stem cells) give rise to four distinct lineages of differentiated cells, including enterocytes (95%), goblet, and enteroendocrine cells on the villi, and paneth cells at the crypt base. The various projects ongoing in the lab relate to understanding the differentiation process in the contexts of (1) normal development, (2) homeostasis within the adult, (3) pathological conditions such as starvation, cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease. Presently, we are focused on defining the mechanisms that govern gut mucosal defense and the interplay between the host and the intestinal microflora.