Our Research

Mouse intestine

The study of intesti­nal regen­er­a­tion is very sig­nif­i­cant to human health. Our work helps under­stand what happens in patients which have inflam­ma­tory diseases such as Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis. As well, the treat­ment of cancer often results in gas­troin­testi­nal mucosi­tis, a damaging of the intesti­nal epithe­lium by chemical agents. Understanding intesti­nal regen­er­a­tion will help treat or avoid these side effects. Finally, regen­er­a­tion can lead to cancer because the acti­va­tion of stem cells turns on genes involved in growth and pro­lif­er­a­tion. Thus we are inter­ested in explor­ing the rela­tion­ships between healing and tumorigenesis.

The Circadian Clock is an ancient and evo­lu­tion­ar­ily con­served pathway. We are inter­ested in studying how time of day reg­u­lates regen­er­a­tion in mammals, such as mice, and how this is con­nected to inflam­ma­tion, growth and cancer.

The Intestine in a dish

The intes­tine and colon can be readily grown in cell culture in the form of intesti­nal “organoids”. These organoids are arti­fi­cial ‘miniguts’ that arise from stem cells har­vested from animal tissues. Organoid assays enable us to study the phys­i­ol­ogy of animals without using the animals themselves.

We derive organoids from mice and human biopsies as an exciting new model system to com­ple­ment our animal-based work. These allow sophis­ti­cated cell-based exper­i­ments to study the inter­ac­tions between the cells making up the intesti­nal epithe­lium. In par­tic­u­lar, we are inter­ested in using human organoids to study the regen­er­a­tion and cir­ca­dian biology of the human small intes­tine and colon. Such exper­i­ments cannot be done on human beings themselves.

Drosophila intestine

The genetic tractabil­ity of Drosophila makes it an excel­lent model system to inves­ti­gate complex cellular inter­ac­tions. Functional genetic screens can be carried out in Drosophila to discover new genes. These can be inves­ti­gated in other animals where they are often con­served. We are inter­ested in using Drosophila as a tool to discover and char­ac­ter­ize new processes.

Surprisingly, the intes­tine shows a daily rhythm in cell regen­er­a­tion, which means that healing is acti­vated accord­ing to time of day. This requires the Circadian Clock, a mol­e­c­u­lar pathway that is syn­chro­nized by daylight in all animals. We are inter­ested in using Drosophila to under­stand how light/dark cycles influ­ence the regen­er­a­tion of the intestine.

Recent Publications

Stem Cell Reports Vol. II

See more in our pub­li­ca­tions section.