Ting Fu
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
Colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC) is among the deadliest forms of colon cancer and a leading cause of death in people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions are hard to spot early in patients with ulcerative colitis, so diagnosis is often late and treatment works poorly.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Pharmacology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
colitis-associated colorectal cancer
inflammatory bowel disease
ulcerative colitis
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2029
What they work on
- Determine how host- and microbe-derived bile acids generated during inflammation and tumor growth shape gut macrophages and their crosstalk with T cells and intestinal stem cells.
- Test how far gut macrophages depend on the bile acid receptor FXR to carry out their functions, using mouse models of colitis-associated colorectal cancer.
- Evaluate whether activating FXR in gut macrophages with agonists such as obeticholic acid, alone or combined with anti-IL23 antibodies, treats colitis and colitis-associated colorectal cancer in mice.
More about the research
Bile acids, digestive molecules that act as early sensors of diet, work largely through a master receptor called FXR (farnesoid X receptor). In IBD and CAC, bile acid production goes out of balance and FXR signaling is badly compromised. Meanwhile, the gut holds the body's largest pool of macrophages, immune cells that act as sentinels for microbes and their metabolites. How these cells sense bile acids, and how FXR governs them, remains largely unknown because gut macrophages change character so readily as cancer progresses.
Why it matters
Patients with ulcerative colitis and other inflammatory bowel diseases carry a serious risk of colitis-associated colon cancer that is hard to detect early and hard to treat. Clarifying how diet, inflammation and gut microbes converge on the bile acid–FXR axis to reprogram gut macrophages could reveal new therapeutic targets and biomarkers, and may support repurposing FXR-activating drugs such as obeticholic acid, alone or with anti-IL23 therapy, as immunomodulators.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Frank Duca
University of Minnesota, MN·Physiology
Assess whether glyphosate exposure at different developmental timepoints promotes obesity or impaired glucose control in male and female mice fed a chow or high-fat diet.
Theresa Torres Pizarro
Case Western Reserve University, OH·Microbiology & Immunology
Identify the cell types in subepithelial ST2+ patches, cells that respond to the signaling molecule IL-33 and sit over colon polyps, in AOM/DSS-treated and Winnie mice, and test their function in tissue outside the body.
Jenessa Winston
Ohio State University, OH·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Test whether daily supplementation with the secondary bile acid ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) changes susceptibility to and severity of Clostridioides difficile infection in IL10-knockout colitis mice.
The school
University of Wisconsin-Madison: 91 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 854 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.