Christian Jobin, PhD

Research Interests

Dr. Jobin’s research program focuses on an important medical problem: the pathological consequences of a dysregulated immune host response to the intestinal non-pathogenic commensal microflora. Dr. Jobin has a longstanding interest in characterizing the mechanism governing host response to the intestinal microflora in respect to intestinal inflammation and colon cancer. This research involves the study of signaling pathways (TLR, Nod, NF-kB) regulating innate host response to bacterial colonization in the intestine. To selectively address the interplay between the host and bacteria, we utilize axenic mice (germ free) derived at the National Gnotobiotic Rodent Resource Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr Jobin is the principal investigator of two NIH RO1 projects investigating the role of immunosuppressive molecules in IBD and the role of bacteria in colitis-associated colon cancer. Overall, this research program is an example of translational molecular medicine where fundamental disease-selective mechanisms could be utilized to design novel therapeutic strategies to alleviate inflammation, restore healing and prevents development of inflammation and colon cancer.   

Link to a list of publications on PubMed.