Prof. Dr. Dirk Haller (Technical University of Munich)

Biological Colloquium at the Biology Center of the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel
Monday, 20th November 2017, 16:15 pm

Lecture hall E 60 of the Biology Center
Am Botanischen Garten 5

As guest of the CRC 1182
Prof. Dr. Dirk Haller
Chair of Nutrition and Immunology, Technische Universität München, Freising-Weihenstephan
Director of ZIEL – Institute for Food & Health, Technische Universität München, Munich

Talks about:
Microbiota-dependent signals at the edge of inflammation and tumorigenesis
The intestinal microbiome is suggested to play an essential role in the development of chronic disorders. Human cohort studies demonstrated changes in gut microbiota composition and function (dysbiosis) in a variety of immune- and metabolically-related pathologies. Dysbiosis is considered as an alteration in microbiota community structure and/or function, capable of causing/driving a detrimental distortion of microbe-host homeostasis, however the mechanisms of disease-specific signal integration of the intestinal microbiome is unclear. Activation of the endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response (erUPR) contributes to the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and might increase the risk for the development of colorectal cancer. The activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6) mediates one of three branches involved in sensing and signaling of erUPR. In a novel and tissue-specific mouse model we demonstrate that microbiota-derived signals are integrated into activated UPR of the epithelium to cause colonic tumor formation independent of initial inflammation. Dysbiotic bacterial communities transfer disease into tumor-susceptible mice, supporting the hypothesis the presence of UPR represent a risk factor for the development of colorectal cancer.