Neuro-immune Interactions in the Gut

Event Details

Type

Monday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Daniel Mucida, Ph.D., professor and head, Laboratory of Mucosal Immunology, The Rockefeller University; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Speaker bio(s)

Multiple intestinal functions including nutrient absorption and peristalsis display regional specialization as well as time-of-day effect under the control of circadian rhythm. The Mucida lab investigated the role of these adaptations in the intestinal immune system and the response to dietary antigens. The lab found that regulatory T (Treg) cells in the murine proximal small intestine (duodenum) expand during the active phase (night) and contract during the day. Treg cell expansion was supported by intestinal eosinophils and clock gene-dependent rhythmic production of follistatin by duodenal enteric neurons. The circadian entrainment of these changes depended on light exposure but not on the time of food intake. This neuro-immune circuit affected immune responses to food, so that oral challenges during the night resulted in more protective tolerance, which was dependent on enteric neuron-derived follistatin secretion. These data suggest that circadian and regional adaptations in the intestine augment regulatory responses during the active phase.

Daniel Mucida received his undergraduate degree in biology from Brazil’s Federal University of Minas Gerais in 2000. In 2005, he earned his Ph.D. jointly from the University of São Paulo and New York University. After postdoctoral studies at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, he joined The Rockefeller University as assistant professor in 2010. He was promoted to associate professor in 2016 and to professor in 2021. Mucida also became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in 2021.

He has received an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, a Kenneth Rainin Foundation Innovator Award, an Irma T. Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Trust Research Award, a Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America Career Development Award, and a New Scholar Award on Aging. He was also named a Pershing Square Sohn Prize–Mathers Foundation Fellow.

MLS lectures are only open to the RU community and will be taking place in Carson Family Auditorium and virtually via Zoom. Virtual participants are required to log in with their RU Zoom account and use their RU email address and password for authentication. We recommend signing out of VPN prior to logging in to the lecture. Please do not share the link or post on social media.

Open to

Campus Only