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Humans are born sterile and soon after colonized by a vast consortium of microorganisms that we collectively call the microbiota. Our immune system must learn how to properly contain these mostly benign colonizers while remaining vigilant against invasion by more aggressive organisms.
The laboratory of Timothy Hand, PhD, is interested in the immune cells of the intestine and how they respond to the first interactions with colonizing microorganisms. How the immune system deals with newly colonizing bacteria is important, since too little immune response can lead to infection but too much can contribute to damaging inflammation. The intestine is home to the largest and densest group of microorganisms in the body and the intestinal microbiome is required for many host processes, most notably the digestion of complex carbohydrates. Therefore, maintaining a healthy relationship with the microbiome is important for the health of the host. Shifts in the intestinal microbiota and the mucosal immune response have been associated with a variety of important pediatric diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, necrotizing enterocolitis and asthma.
Our view is that the long-term relationship between the host and the microbiome can be shaped by the results of their initial interaction by the phenomenon of immunological memory. Therefore, we seek to better understand the immune systems ‘first impressions’ of the microbiota and how they are shaped by environmental factors such as diet and inflammation.
T cells at mucosal surfaces are critical to protection against invasive bacteria, viruses and parasites. However, if intestinal T cells become dysregulated, they can contribute to autoinflammatory diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease. We study how T cells in the small intestine and colon are shaped by the microbiome, both to the benefit and detriment of the host. We are interested in how interaction with specific micro-organisms can shape T cells to assist in vaccination and tumor immunotherapy. Alternatively, we are interested in how intestinal bacteria can shift T cells into inflammatory states, contributing to disease.
The immune system has a key role in the shaping of the microbiota. Maintaining homeostasis with regard to the microbiota is a lifelong process and shaped by the development of immunological memory against the bacteria that make up the microbiota. Infants are quickly colonized with bacteria that they have had no previous experience with and are therefore susceptible to both ineffective (leading to infection) and exaggerated (leading to damaging inflammation) immune responses against the microbiota. We hypothesize that one of the functions of maternal milk is to shape the developing microbiome towards health and that the primary mediators of that effort are antibodies, particularly Immunoglobulin A, secreted into the breast milk. This work has implications for many pediatric diseases and perhaps most notably necrotizing enterocolitis, where we have shown that disease is associated with a failure of IgA to bind to the bacteria present in the preterm intestine.
The primary function of the intestine is the uptake of nutrients from the diet. As such, it is obvious that the diet can significantly modify the relationship between the host and the microbiota. However, this relationship is very complex because diet can affect both the microbiota and the immune response. We have developed a series of projects to begin to unravel this intricate relationship. We examine both malnourishment associated with food insecurity (nutrient restriction) but also over-abundance (High calories, processed sugar). Our goal is to understand how diet, via the microbiome contributes to diseases such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction, a debilitating disease of children in resource poor nations.
Principal Investigator timothy.hand@chp.edu Read More>>
Amrita Bhattacharjee, PhD Post-doctoral Fellow amb427@pitt.edu
Hannah Bumgarner Undergraduate Student Researcher hab97@pitt.edu
Ansen Burr MD/PhD Candidate burr.ansen@medstudent.pitt.edu
Kathyayini Parlakoti Gopalakrishna, MBBS PhD Candidate kpg13@pitt.edu
Chelseá Johnson, MD Post-doctoral Fellow, Neonatology chelsea.johnson2@chp.edu
Abigail Overacre-Delgoffe Post-doctoral Fellow overacre@pitt.edu
Justin Tometich Lab Manager/Technician jut26@pitt.edu
The Hand Lab UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh John G. Rangos Sr. Research Center, Suite 21 4401 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15224 412-692-9617
View current news featuring the research, staff and advancements of the Hand Lab at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Richard King Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research. Please check back often for continued updates.
Another Reason Breast Is Best for Fragile Preemie Babies U.S. News & World Report (6/17/19)
Mother's Milk Protects Premature Babies Against Deadly Infection - But Only if it Contains a Special Antibody, Study Finds Daily Mail (6/17/2019)
Breastmilk’s IgA Protects Preemies From Deadly Disease Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (6/18/2019)
HealthWatch: Breast Milk Helps Preterm Babies Fight Deadly Intestinal Disease WJZ-13 CBS Baltimore (6/18/2019)
Natürlicher Schutz vor Gefürchtetem Darm-Notfall Neue Zurcher Zeitung (6/22/2019)
Gli Anticorpi del Latte Materno che Proteggono i Bimbi Premature Nostrofiglio (6/24/19)
The First Handshake, a podcast featuring Timothy Hand, PhD, was added to the That’s Pediatrics” series. (12/4/18)
Abigail Overacre-Delgoffe, PhD, was honored with the Young Investigator Award from Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.
Dr. Overacre-Delgoffe, was named Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Post-doctoral Fellow.
Kathyayini Gopalakrishna, MBBS, and Dr. Overacre-Delgoffe won the Outstanding Poster and Oral Presentation at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Research Day.
Dr. Gopalakrishna received a travel award from the Society for Mucosal Immunology to attend the International Congress of Mucosal Immunology in Brisbane, Australia.
Amrita Bhattacharjee, PhD, received the RAC Fellowship, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Ansen Burr was named to the Autoimmunity and Immunopathology T32 Training Program.
Timothy Hand, PhD, gave a Keynote presentation at the 8th Annual Meeting of the Graduate Program in Immunology, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Dr. Gopalakrishna gave a Plenary Session presentation at the International Conference of Mucosal Immunology in Brisbane, Australia.
Dr. Hand delivered the keynote address at the 2nd International Vaccines Against Shigella and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VASE) Conference in Mexico City, Mexico.
Maternal IgA Protects Against the Development of Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Preterm Infants Gopalakrishna KP, Macadangdang BR, Rogers MB, Tometich JT, Firek BA, Baker R, Ji J, Burr AHP, Ma C, Good M, Morowitz MJ, Hand TW Nature Medicine 2019 Jun 17
Role of Nutrition, Infection, and the Microbiota in the Efficacy of Oral Vaccines Bhattacharjee A, Hand TW Clinical Science 2018 Jun 15
T Cell Proliferation and Colitis Are Initiated by Defined Intestinal Microbes Chiaranunt P, Tometich JT, Ji J, Hand TW The Journal of Immunology 2018 Jul 1
Linking the Microbiota, Chronic Disease, and the Immune System Hand TW, Vujkovic-Cvijin I, Ridaura VK, Belkaid Y Trends Endocrinology & Metabolism 2016 Dec
The Role of the Microbiota in Shaping Infectious Immunity Hand TW Trends in Immunology 2016 Oct
The Hand Lab is looking for talented post-doctoral fellows and graduate students interested in immune/microbiota interaction in the intestine. Please contact Dr. Hand via email if you are interested.
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