The Derrick Rowley Lecture 2019
- Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2019, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
- Location: The Braggs Lecture Theatre
- Contact: Dr Iain Comerford 08 8313 1127
- Email: iain.comerford@adelaide.edu.au
- Professor Richard Flavell Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Professor Richard Flavell
The Derrick Rowley Lecture for 2019 will be presented on the topic of Mesenchymal cells in intestinal homeostasis, inflammation and cancer.
Mesenchymal cell populations, including fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, smooth muscle cells and pericytes, are a major but poorly investigated cellular component of the intestinal microenvironment, interacting with intestinal epithelial cells, the extracellular matrix but also with immune cell types.
Intestinal mesenchymal cell types may be actively involved in the development, the resolution or the perpetuation of intestinal inflammatory responses in conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Mesenchymal cells can also be actively involved in the development of colorectal cancer.
The specific cell-to-cell interactions and the molecular pathways through which mesenchymal cell types exert their function in chronic inflammation and cancer remain largely unknown.
Recent studies addressing the role of intestinal mesenchymal cell types such as fibroblasts and myofibroblasts in intestinal homeostasis, inflammation and tumorigenesis as well as major open questions and current challenges in this field will be discussed.
Professor Flavell is Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.