Cathryn R. Nagler is an American immunologist. She is the Bunning Family Professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, the Department of Pathology, and the college at the University of Chicago. Nagler is also the co-founder and president of the startup company ClostraBio, Inc.
Cathryn Nagler | |
|---|---|
| Academic background | |
| Education | BSc, biology, 1979, Barnard College PhD, immunology, 1986, New York University Grossman School of Medicine |
| Thesis | Immunoregulation of an experimental model of autoimmunity: collagen-induced arthritis (1986) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Chicago Harvard Medical School |
In 2004, Nagler and her colleagues discovered that peanuts provoked anaphylaxis only in mice with a mutated TLR4 receptor, not in genetically related strains with a normal TLR4. Later, Nagler and her colleagues identified significant differences between the gut bacteria of infants who had an allergy to cow's milk and healthy infants.
Early life and education
editGrowing up, Nagler broke out in hives whenever she ate eggs and reacted to penicillin.[1] She graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University in 1979 with her Bachelor of Science degree in biology and her PhD in immunology from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Following her PhD, Nagler completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[2]
Career
editFour years after finishing her graduate work, Nagler started running a lab at Harvard Medical School.[1] During her tenure at Harvard, she was first to show, in an animal model, that feeding potential autoantigens to a subject prior to immunizing them could protect the animal from developing an autoimmune response.[3] In 2004, Nagler and her colleagues published a report showing that peanuts provoked anaphylaxis only in mice with a mutated TLR4 receptor, not in genetically related strains with a normal TLR4.[4] She eventually left Harvard in 2009 to accept a similar faculty position at the University of Chicago. By 2011, she was appointed the inaugural Bunning Food Allergy Professor.[3]
In 2015, Nagler and her team identified differences between the gut bacteria of infants who had cow's milk allergies and those of healthy infants of the same age. Following this discovery, Nagler received a technology pilot award from the Institute for Translational Medicine and teamed up with Jeffrey Hubbell to launch ClostraBio.[5] The aim of ClostraBio was to create microbiome-based treatments for people with life-threatening food allergies.[6] In 2019, as president and co-founder of ClostraBio, her research team studied the effects of gut bacteria and food allergies. She transplanted gut bacteria from the babies in her study into germ-free mice—mice born by C-section and showed that allergic and nonallergic infants had different communities of gut bacteria.[1][7]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nagler was recognized as a distinguished fellow of the American Association of Immunologists for her outstanding contributions to immunology.[8] Following this, she led a study with scientists from Stanford University which identified fecal microbiome differences in food allergies between pairs of twins.[9] Nagler also served as the co-chair of the education committee for the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies and taught in the FOCIS Advanced Course in Basic and Clinical Immunology.[10]
References
edit- ^ a b c Landhuis, Esther (May 21, 2020). "Could gut microbes be key to solving food allergies?". Knowable Magazine. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ "Cathryn R. Nagler". University of Chicago. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ a b "Faculty members receive named, distinguished service professorships". University of Chicago. July 6, 2011. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ Bashir, Mohamed Elfatih H.; Louie, Steven; Shi, Hai Ning; Nagler-Anderson, Cathryn (June 1, 2004). "Toll-Like Receptor 4 Signaling by Intestinal Microbes Influences Susceptibility to Food Allergy". Journal of Immunology. 172 (11): 6978–6987. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.172.11.6978. PMID 15153518. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ Reiter, Carla (October 27, 2016). "Scientist builds drug development company out of research lab". University of Chicago. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ Shelton, LeeAnn (May 9, 2019). "Meet the Polsky Center Startup Taking on Food Allergies". Chicago Booth Magazine. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ Marantz Henig, Robin (December 17, 2019). "How trillions of microbes affect every stage of our life—from birth to old age". National Geographic. Archived from the original on June 11, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ Goodwin, Ryan (January 28, 2020). "Cathryn Nagler recognized for outstanding contributions to immunology". University of Chicago. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ "Study in twins identifies fecal microbiome differences in food allergies". Science Daily. January 19, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ "Cathryn R. Nagler". University of Chicago. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
External links
editCathryn Nagler publications indexed by Google Scholar