Richard S. Blumberg

Department of Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Thorn Building 1419
75 Francis Street
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: (617) 732-6917
Fax: (617) 264-5185
Email: rblumberg@partners.org
Web Page: The Blumberg Lab Page
9 postdoctoral fellows, 1 graduate student

The laboratory studies mucosal immunity and focuses on several molecules that the laboratory believes are operative and especially relevant to the physiologic processes and diseases related to these compartments. As such, the laboratory has a particular interest in the manner in which aberrations of these physiologic processes lead to the development of inflammatory bowel disease, the management of the luminal microbial ecology, intestinal barrier dysfunction and allergy, among others.

The laboratory has four major areas of interest:

1. Characterization of the neonatal MHC class I-related Fc receptor (FcRn) in epithelial cells and dendritic cells;
2. Understanding carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1) as a co-inhibitory molecule on T cells;
3. Determining the role of the nonclassical MHC class I-related molecule, CD1d, and microsomal triglyceride transfer protein in mucosal immunity.

4. ER Stress and intestinal inflammation

References:

Nagaishi T, Pao L, Iijima H, Chen D, Glickman J, Nakajima A, Neel BG, Blumberg RS. SHP1 dependent T cell inhibition by CEACAM1 isoforms expressing a long cytoplasmic domain. Immunity 2006;116:2142-51.
Dougan SK, Rava P, Hussain MM, Blumberg RS. MTP regulated by an alternate promoter is essential for NKT cell development. J Exp Med 2007;204:533-545.
Qiao S-W, Kobayashi K, Johansen F-E, Sollid LM, Andersen JT, Milford E, Roopenian, DC, Lencer WI, Blumberg RS. Dependence of antibody-mediated presentation of antigen on FcRn. Proc Nat Acad Sci 2008; 105:9337-9342.
Kaser A, Lee AH, Franke A, Glickman JN, Zeissig S, Tilg H, Nieuwenhuis ESS, Higgins DE, Schreiber S, Glimcher LH, Blumberg RS. Transcription factor XBP1 links ER stress to intestinal inflammation and confers genetic risk for human inflammatory bowel disease. Cell 2008;134:743-756.
Nieuwenhuis ESS, Matsumoto T, Lindenburgh D, Willemsen R, Kaser A, Simons-Oosterhuis Y, Brugman S, Yamaguchi K, Ishikawa H, Aiba Y, Koga Y, Samsom J, Oshima K, Kikuchi M, Escher JC, Hattori M, Onderdonk AB, Blumberg RS. CD1-d-dependent regulation of bacterial colonoizaion in the intestine of mice. J Clin Invest, 2009;119(4)1172-1181.