Graphic announcing Dr. Rachel Gottschalk's promotion to associate professor

Graphic announcing Dr. Reinhard Hinterleitner's promotion to associate professor

Graphic announcing Dr. Marlies Meisel's promotion to associate professor

Good things come in threes! Please join us in congratulating @gottschalklab.bsky.social, @rh-lab.bsky.social, and @meisellab.bsky.social on promotion to associate professor! (1/2)

Graphic with headshot announcing Dr. Jishnu Das's promotion to associate professor with tenure.

Congratulations to Jishnu Das for his promotion to Associate Professor with tenure! Learn more about Dr. Das and his work: www.immunology.pitt.edu/news/jishnu-...

Cover of the Pitt Department of Immunology's new quarterly newsletter, ImmunoSurveillance, which features an image of the interior of The Assembly building's "Crane Shed," a large atrium which serves as a meeting spot and event space.

Introducing the Pitt Department of Immunology's new quarterly newsletter, ImmunoSurveillance! We're excited to share the incredible research happening in the department and our amazing immunology community that makes it all possible. bit.ly/4j1RIok

Excited to share research co-led by Gabby & Adam in @jem.org! Grateful to the NIH & @scripps.edu for support.

Myeloid IL-1β and stress exert opposing control over colitis severity through the α₁-adrenergic-enterochromaffin axis, uncovering a neuro-immune-epithelial circuit that shapes intestinal inflammation @cp-immunity.bsky.social
www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Immunofluorescence image of colonic tissue from a mouse Salmonella superspreader. When regulatory T cells are depleted, mice exhibit gastroenteritis symptoms and there is an increase in tissue-damaging cytotoxic CD4+ T cells, shown in yellow and highlighted by arrows.

How did #TyphoidMary infect dozens of people with typhoid-causing Salmonella bacteria while remaining asymptomatic? New research in mice led by Dr. Blanda Di Luccia suggests that #Tregs play a role.

Learn more: tinyurl.com/28k78fw9

Graphic with headshot of Dr. Blanda Di Luccia welcoming her to the University of Pittsburgh Department of Immunology as a Research Assistant Professor

A very warm welcome to Dr. Blanda Di Luccia, who joined the department this month as a Research Assistant Professor! Her research focuses on understanding host-microbe interactions in the gut and how the immune system maintains tolerance during chronic infection. Learn more: bit.ly/3WXgr2V

Enteropathogenic bacteria evade ROCK-driven epithelial cell extrusion - Nature The bacterial ubiquitin ligase NleL evades host defence mechanisms both by inhibiting pyroptosis and by preventing infected intestinal epithelial cells from being extruded into the lumen and expelled ...

Check out our new publication, a collaboration with Giovanni Luchetti and Vishva Dixit @ Genentech.
We show that the E.coli effector NleL inhibits intestinal epithelial cell extrusion after #inflammasome activation via degrading the kinases ROCK1 and 2!!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Explainer 1/8

Preview @cp-immunity.bsky.social
Cutting the Gordian knot: Untangling gasdermin C from pyroptosis
www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
on
www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Congratulations!

Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track, Department of Biology, University of San Francisco Job Title: Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track, Department of Biology, University of San Francisco Job Summary: The Department of Biology at the University of San Francisco invites applications for a fu...

Tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Bioinformatics in the Department of Biology at the University of San Francisco
usfca.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/USF_Fu...

Looking forward to the 23rd annual Department of Immunology retreat tomorrow! It's always a great time to catch up on #immunology research and connect with colleagues. Shout out to the organizing committee and grad student Sarah Bradley for designing this year's poster.

Congrats, @catmphelps.bsky.social !

👋 Hello Bluesky! We are the Pitt Department of Immunology. From autoimmune disease and cancer immunotherapy to vaccine development to infectious disease, our work spans the spectrum of immunological science. Follow along for updates on the latest publications and other news!

Our findings reveal a protective role for GSDMC in intestinal epithelial cells during helminth infection- and expand the function of gasdermins beyond classical roles in pyroptosis and cytokine release

Using a clever approach (Yi-Nan), we showed that inserting a single amino acid within the lipid binding motif (to mimic pyroptotic gasdermins) enhances GSDMC oligomerization and increases its ability to induce cell death

Mechanistically, cleaved GSDMC doesn’t localize to the plasma membrane as typical gasdermins do (eg GSDMD) Rather, GSDMC targets Rab7+ vesicles (late endosomes) leading to lipid droplet accumulation, which in turn promotes goblet cell hyperplasia and type 2 immune responses

Similar to findings by Drs Hai-Bin Ruan and Xiaoyu Hu, we observed that GSDMC activation does NOT drive epithelial cell (IEC) death. Instead, we found that intestinal GSDMC is not cleaved by caspases, but DIRECTLY by the cysteine protease Cathepsin S generating a functional GSDMC-Nter

GSDMC is barely expressed in the intestine but is induced 100-fold and cleaved (activated) in response to type-2 triggers like helminth infection or colonization by the commensal protist Tritrichomonas.

Big thank you to our amazing collaborators @meisellab.bsky.social @jmoltke.bsky.social and Suhong Xu #GSMC #Helminth #Tritrichomonas #type-2-immunity

Gasdermin C cleavage by Cathepsin S modulates Rab7 vesicles in intestinal epithelial cells to amplify anti-helminth immunity Pandey et al. identify Cathepsin S (CTSS) as the direct protease that cleaves Gasdermin C (GsdmC) in the intestine. Type 2 immune-promoting microbes trigger CTSS-dependent GsdmC activation in intestin...

Excited to share our new publication in collaboration with Yi-Nan Gong: Gasdermin C cleavage by Cathepsin S modulates Rab7 vesicles in intestinal epithelial cells to amplify anti-helminth immunity: Immunity www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

The Global Grants for Gut Health are now open. If your research explores how nutrition affects the gut #microbiome or barrier function, you may be eligible to apply for one of three grants each offering up to USD$100K. Apply here: go.nature.com/4kb9cO1 #Academicsky 🍎📃

Waves crashing on a rocky landscape.

Welcome to #InnovationsSymposium2025! We’re excited to be together again—this year on the beautiful island of Oʻahu—to hear the latest #IBD research and encourage dialogue and connections that continue to move the work forward.

Exercise-induced microbiota metabolite enhances CD8 T cell antitumor immunity promoting immunotherapy efficacy Exercise enhances antitumor immunity and immunotherapy effectiveness by increasing microbiota-derived formate, which boosts CD8 T cell function and may serve as a biomarker of melanoma suppression.

Our lab just completed a +6 year #marathon, describing for the first time that the #microbiome is critical for #exercise - induced increases in antitumor CD8 T cell immunity and improved of #cancer #immunotherapy.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Microbiome mismatches from microbiota transplants lead to persistent off-target metabolic and immunomodulatory effects Fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) may not always effectively restore small bowel microbiota due to regional differences in gut environments, potentially causing unintended effects on metabolism and ...

The unintended consequences of a gut microbiome transplant
www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Immunoglobulin A controls intestinal virus colonization to preserve immune homeostasis
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Let's not forget that apart from science advocacy the Rauch lab also does kick-ass science!
Together with the @psmitchej.bsky.social and Tait Wojno labs, we show that #tuftcells can induce specific protective signaling after recognition of intracellular bacterial infection via the #inflammasome!

Cathedral of Learning with crowd gathered on Schenley Plaza grass in foreground

Stand Up for Science Rally in Pittsburgh

#KSHostMicrobe25 in beautiful Banff-such an awesome meeting. Was great to talk at the @keystonesymposia.bsky.social about exciting work from the lab about how we can take advantage of the microbiota metabolites to improve cancer immunotherapy efficacy
#microbiota #immunometabolism #cancer

Homeostatic antiviral protection of the neonatal gut epithelium by interferon lambda Enteric viral infections are a major public health problem in newborns. Ramirez Reyes et al. find that the immature intestinal epithelium of newborn mice is developmentally programmed for the homeosta...

Homeostatic antiviral protection of the neonatal gut epithelium by interferon lambda: Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Newborns lack immune memory to viral pathogens, so wouldn't it make sense to pre-emptively turn on antiviral defenses in barrier tissues such as the intestine at birth?