WEHI Special Inflammation Seminar hosted by Dr Andre Samson

Kylie James PhD

Laboratory Head – Gut Immunogenomics Lab

Conjoint Senior Lecturer – School of Biomedical Sciences, UNSW Medicine and Health

The Kinghorn Cancer Centre – Garvan Institute of Medical Research

 cDefining the PSC-UC and UC colonic mucosa with paired microbial and single-cell RNA sequencing

Davis Auditorium

Join via TEAMS

Including Q&A session

Dr James completed a PhD in T cell immunity to malaria in 2017 with Dr Ashraful Haque at QIMR Berghofer. She then undertook postdoctoral training at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the laboratory of Dr Sarah Teichmann and a junior research fellowship at Christ’s College, University of Cambridge, UK. Here, she spearheaded the cell atlas of the human intestinal tract across anatomical space and developmental time. In 2021, Kylie returned to Australia to start her team as Spinak Fellow and supported by an NHMRC Investigator Grant. Her lab investigates the cellular and microbial contributions to intestinal disease using single-cell and spatially-resolved gene expression technologies.
 

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic progressing cholestatic disease that often co-occurs with inflammatory bowel disease (PSC-IBD). While PSC-IBD is clinically likened to ulcerative colitis (UC), it has a right colon dominance, less severe inflammatory phenotype and a greater lifetime risk of colorectal cancer. In this seminar, I will share how we have combined single-cell mRNA and immune receptor sequencing, 16S rRNA gene analysis and spatial transcriptomics to comprehensively assess the colonic mucosa at steady-state and during PSC-IBD and UC. We reveal disease-specific cell and microbial profiles between these cohorts even without histological inflammation and highlight an inflammatory mast cell state shared across IBD subtypes in the context of active disease. This work highlights distinct disease mechanisms underpinning PSC-IBD and UC, with shared inflammatory cell programs, providing tools for patient stratification and avenues for precision therapies.

All Welcome!