Hsin-Jung Joyce Wu, Ph.D.

My laboratory works on our long-standing interest: the role of microbes in autoimmune disease with a unique focus, mucosal immunity. Imbalance of gut microbiota can lead to many diseases including those located systemically (outside the gut; e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, lupus, etc.). Accordingly, the big question that my laboratory is focusing on is how gut microbiota remotely exert systemic effects. We have established a new system to examine commensal-host interactions by manipulating the status of the commensal, segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB), in the K/BxN arthritis model housed in a specific pathogen free (SPF) facility. We also developed a state-of-the-art photoconverting technique to track single cell migration between gut and systemic tissues. With these systems, we were able to show that SFB remotely trigger systemic autoimmune arthritis by driving the induction and egression of gut T follicular helper (Tfh) cells.