Research Summary
The McCauley Lab investigates how enteroendocrine cells (EECs) sense and transmit environmental cues like nutrients to neighboring intestinal cells, regulating their physiology, metabolism, and function. EECs are rare cells, only making up about 1% of the intestinal epithelium, but are required for normal nutrient absorption and intestinal function. In their absence, patients suffer from malabsorptive diarrhea and failure to thrive. Moreover, EECs are frequently abnormal or dysregulated in inflammatory bowel diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. EECs secrete approximately 20 distinct hormones and other bioactive products, which are well-known to act systemically on organs such as the brain and the pancreas. The focus of the McCauley lab is to investigate the local effects of EECs on the intestine itself, using mouse and human pluripotent stem cell-derived intestinal organoid model systems.
CGIBD Focus Area(s): Regeneration and Repair
Pilot and Feasibility Award 2023
Collaborators: Magness
