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Much Ado About Dying: Programmed Cell Death Programs in the Gut

The small intestinal epithelium is a rapidly renewing tissue in which proliferation, differentiation, and cell death must be tightly regulated to maintain homeostasis. Although multiple cell death pathways have been described in intestinal epithelial cells, their temporal regulation during differentiation and their functional roles remain incompletely understood. We examine the role of several regulators of cell death programs in the small intestine and how they distinctly regulate life and cell death decisions of specific epithelial cell types.

I will discuss our work on a model of small intestinal inflammation caused by the deletion of the X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) protein to determine how cell death impacts both immune and epithelial cells and drives chronic inflammation. In addition, I will present more recent work where we are exploring the role of Gasdermin proteins in intestinal homeostasis and inflammation. These pathways all impact the microbiome and its metabolites, thereby contributing to a pro-inflammatory environment.

From 19 Feb 2026 09:30
Until 19 Feb 2026 10:30
Location Seminar room, FSVM I
Speaker
Monica Yabal
Affiliation
Technical University of Munich, Institute for Molecular Immunology, Germany
Host Lars Vereecke

About the speaker

As a molecular and cell biologist, my career-long interest has been the regulation of protein function. I have worked to understand the importance of protein localisation and post-translational modifications for proper protein function and protein-protein interactions. These methodologies have been applied specifically to the study of programmed cell death in innate immune cells. I have incorporated these approaches to understand how innate immune and intestinal epithelial cells use distinct cell death pathways to regulate innate immunity. I also transfer these mechanistic and molecular findings into more complex in vivo models of intestinal inflammatory conditions to understand their significance in disease pathogenesis. Finally, the significant role of the intestinal microbiome and its metabolites in modulating host innate immune responses and cell death pathways in the intestinal tract is also a focus of my research.

Much Ado About Dying: Programmed Cell Death Programs in the Gut
Seminar