Research Summary
Dr. Gonzalez utilizes large animal models to study the mechanisms that control intestinal stem cell dynamics during both the injury and recovery phases of clinically relevant disease states. She is a clinician-scientist, with specialty training as a large animal surgeon, who has developed and utilized the pig as a translational model for intestinal stem cell biology and, more recently, intestinal transplantation research. Specifically, her lab has optimized the tools and techniques, including 3D stem cell culture, to evaluate epithelial injury and repair in in vivo and in vitro models. Ongoing research investigates the role of the injury-resistant intestinal stem cell population in modulating epithelial repair following severe ischemic injury and enhancing intestinal allograft viability in a porcine model of intestinal transplantation.
CGIBD Focus Area(s): Regeneration and Repair
Pilot and Feasibility Award 2014
Collaborators: Blikslager, Garman, Magness, Roper, van Landeghem, Zeigler
