Exciting Discoveries
Department of Immunology & Microbiology
We highlight research articles on our website to keep you informed about the latest advancements and exciting discoveries from our amazing scientists within the basic science departments at CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
By showcasing our cutting-edge research, we hope to spark curiosity, promote understanding, and inspire engagement with science and innovation. Our goal is to empower you with knowledge that can inform decision-making, foster critical thinking, and contribute to a better understanding of what we do here in the research labs at the University of Colorado Anschutz.
2022
Dr. Curtis Henry studies how elevated fat levels in the body play a role in the progression of cancer and treatment responses to certain cancer drugs, specifically chemotherapies and immunotherapies. Chemotherapy treatments kill fast-growing cells and immunotherapy treatments harness the body’s own defense system – the immune system – to kill cancer cells. Curtis and his team are on a quest to learn how fat influences cancer cells and their detection by the immune system. His research will be used to create new and unique cancer drugs for patients with poor survival outcomes.
More information about Curtis's research can be found on X (Twitter) @Immunology4Life
Dr. Curtis Henry and his team published a science article in the journal of Nature Communications in March 2022 titled, ‘Obesity-induced galectin-9 is a therapeutic target in B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.’
To gain a better understanding of the research in this article, please read the easy-to-understand summary below.
Obesity-induced galectin-9 is a therapeutic target in B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
The number of people living with obesity (or high levels of fat cells in their bodies) are increasing across the globe. This is concerning because obesity raises the risk of death in people with different types of cancer, including leukemia. We think the difference in survival rates between lean and obese patients with cancer is because cancer drugs work differently in lean and obese bodies, with their effect decreasing or not working as well in patients with high numbers of fat cells. When making cancer drugs, we don't usually think about how the interactions between cancer cells and other cells in the body, like fat cells, influence drug-induced cancer cell death. Curtis and his team found that molecules released by fat cells make leukemia cells more resistant to cancer drugs called chemotherapy by increasing the production of a specific protein called Galectin-9 (GAL-9). They also found that when they target GAL-9 in mouse leukemia cells with special proteins made by the immune system called antibodies, the cancer cells' DNA is damaged, which disrupts their growth and triggers cell death. Furthermore, they demonstrated that this treatment – antibodies that target GAL-9 – significantly prolongs survival in obese mice with aggressive leukemia. The findings from Henry’s research suggests that therapies, like antibodies, targeting GAL-9 could help overcome chemotherapy resistance caused by obesity-related factors in leukemia patients. Because of the positive results of this research in mice, this treatment strategy is currently being tested in a Phase I clinical trial in patients with aggressive disease.
2021
Dr. Kyla Ost studies a specific type of fungus called Candida albicans. Fungi are found in the gastrointestinal tract or gut of most humans, and most of the time do not cause any harm. However, sometimes if the immune system – the bodies built-in defense system – is out of balance, the fungi in our gut can cause harm by promoting inflammation. Kyla is working hard to learn how the immune system keeps this fungus, Candida albicans, from causing harm in our bodies, particularly our gut.
More information about Kyla's research can be found on her lab's website here.
Dr. Ost and her team published a science article in the journal of Nature in July 2021 titled, ‘Adaptive immunity induces mutation between commensal eukaryotes.’
To gain a better understanding of the research in this article, please read the easy-to-understand summary below.
Adaptive immunity induces mutualism between commensal eukaryotes
There are fungi living peacefully in our gut called ‘commensal organisms’ that help train the body’s defense system – the immune system. But sometimes these peaceful or commensal organisms can take on new forms that make us sick or make certain inflammatory bowel diseases, like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, worse. We don’t fully understand how these fungi and the immune system interact in the gut. Kyla studies this fungi-immune system interaction and discovered that certain forms of Candida can cause more harm because they are better at sticking to and invading the gut wall. In the gut, this more harmful form of Candida triggers a response from a special ‘weapon’ in our immune system’s arsenal called immunoglobulin A (IgA), which prevents it from causing harm. By fighting against this more harmful form of Candida, our immune system actually makes it harder for the harmful form of the fungus to survive there. This finding is important for people who have intestinal colitis since the harmful form of Candida often makes their disease worse. To learn even more about how we could help our immune systems keep our gut healthy, Kyla tested out a vaccine in mice that trained the immune system to fight the more harmful form of the Candida. She found that the vaccine protected the mice who had intestinal colitis from getting sick from Candida during their illness. Overall, Kyla’s research shows that the body’s defense system keeps the more harmful versions of the Candida fungi in check and that the special immune system ‘weapon’ called IgA plays a big role in preventing the more harmful forms of Candida from causing harm while allowing the more agreeable forms of Candida to live in our bodies peacefully.
Dr. Jenna Guthmiller studies how the immune system – the body's built-in defense system – responds to the influenza (flu) virus and how the flu virus itself plays a role in controlling the immune response. She is on a mission to learn how scientists can design better and more protective flu vaccines for the future. In particular, she is interested in figuring out how to make flu vaccines that would provide protection against a wide range of influenza virus strains at the same time and possibly result in the development of one ‘universal’ flu vaccine.
More information about Jenna's research on her lab's website here.
Dr. Guthmiller and her team published a science article about her research in the journal of Nature in December 2021 titled, ‘Broadly neutralizing antibodies target a hemagglutinin anchor epitope.’
To gain a better understanding of the research in this article, please read the summary below.
Broadly neutralizing antibodies target a hemagglutinin anchor epitope
Have you ever wondered if it would be possible to make a flu vaccine that could be protective over several years? Dr. Jenna Guthmiller has the same question! New findings from her research focused on the immune response to the influenza virus suggest that there may be potential for the creation of a multi-year or universal vaccine. Like all viruses, the influenza virus is good at hiding from the immune system by changing what it looks like every year. You can think of the influenza virus as wearing a coat and each year it changes the color of the coat to throw off the detection of the immune system. If one year the coat on the virus is red, the next year the coat on the virus is orange. The constantly changing color of the coat makes it hard for the immune system to detect the invader. If the immune system has been trained and is ready to attack the virus wearing a red coat, the new viruses wearing orange coats slip by undetected.