Lora Hooper
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Vitamin A from food is essential for the immune defenses of the intestine, the body's largest interface with microbes. The single layer of cells lining the gut, the intestinal epithelium, helps decide how the immune system learns to handle the trillions of bacteria living there, yet how it does so is poorly understood.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
intestinal immunity
mucosal immunology
vitamin A
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Determine how complexes of serum amyloid A, a microbiota-induced epithelial protein, with the vitamin A derivative retinol are assembled inside intestinal epithelial cells and secreted from them.
- Identify the physical interface between serum amyloid A and LRP1, the receptor that imports it, and test how this contact governs retinol uptake by intestinal myeloid cells and vitamin A-dependent immunity.
- Define how the intestinal microbiota regulates retinol acquisition by myeloid cells and the resulting vitamin A-dependent responses, such as T and B cell homing to the gut and immunoglobulin A production.
More about the research
This matters because many human intestinal diseases arise when that immune regulation goes wrong. The project traces the molecular route by which vitamin A reaches intestinal immune cells and how resident bacteria influence that route.
Why it matters
Because vitamin A delivery drives antibody production and immune cell traffic in the gut, mapping this pathway could reveal ways to dial intestinal immunity up or down, through drugs or diet, to treat intestinal infection and inflammation. Many human intestinal diseases stem from dysregulated gut immunity, so identifying the molecular handoffs involved offers concrete targets.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Carrie Cowardin
University of Virginia, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether gut microbiota from stunted human infants drive dysregulated intestinal immunity, using germ-free mice colonized with stunted or healthy infant microbiota whose pups are weaned onto a nutrient-deficient diet.
Eliseo Castillo
University of New Mexico, NM·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how varying doses and types of microplastic particles alter intestinal permeability, meaning leakiness of the gut lining, using a zebrafish exposure model.
Nita Salzman
Medical College of Wisconsin, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
Identify which intestinal cells, including enterocytes, Paneth cells and fibroblasts, produce complement component 3 (C3) in the distal small intestine of mice colonized with the commensal bacterium Enterococcus faecalis.
The school
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: 40 labs on PI Pages, $869M a year on research, 86 research doctorates a year.
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