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McCormick, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology, Harvard Medical School The Mucosal Immunology and Developmental Biology Laboratories, Mass General Hospital |
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Massachusetts
General Hospital
Building 114 16th St. Mucosal Immunology Charlestown, MA 02129 |
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Research Interests The McCormick laboratory focuses on dissecting the molecular mechanisms by which enteric pathogens induce mucosal inflammatory responses in infectious, allergic, and idiopathic colitis. One project studies the bacterial induced epithelial synthesis and polarized basolateral release of the potent PMN chemokine, interleukin-8 (IL-8) that imprints subepithelial matrices with long-lived haptotactic gradients to guide PMN through the lamina propria to a subepithelial position. The laboratory has also identified the first bacterial induced proinflammatory mediator released apically, called pathogen elicited epithelial chemoattractant (PEEC). In a 3rd project, the laboratory focuses on how Shigella flexneri coordinate the mucosal immune response in bacillary dysentery. Such studies employ a patho-evolutionary approach and have led to the novel idea that Shigella may evolved from non-pathogenic ancestors by the loss of genes that are incompatible with virulence. Selected Publications Kohler, H, Rodriques, SP, and McCormick, BA. Shigella flexneri interactions with the basolateral membrane domain of polarized model intestinal epithelium: Role of lipopolysaccharide in cell invasion and in activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK. Infect. Immun. 2002;70: 1150-1158. Hisamatsu T. Suzuki M. Reinecker HC. Nadeau WJ. McCormick BA. Podolsky DK. CARD15/NOD2 functions as an antibacterial factor in human intestinal epithelial cells. Gastroenterology. 124(4):993-1000, 2003 Apr. McCormick BA. The use of transepithelial models to examine host-pathogen interactions. Current Opinion in Microbiology. 6(1):77-81, 2003 Feb. |
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