Most of us have daily contact with people suffering from gastrointestinal (GI) diseases such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and even colorectal cancer. Although the symptoms are well described, the etiology or causes are not as well defined.  Many molecules are playing a key role in these debilitating diseases. However, the impact of extracellular nucleotides and associated receptor system are not as well understood.  In fact, understanding their functions will most certainly lead to the development of new class of molecules targeting GI diseases.

 

The laboratory studies the roles of the G protein-coupled P2Y2 and P2Y6 receptors and the ligand-gated P2X7 receptor in intestinal epithelium functions in GI diseases and colorectal cancer.  We focus at elucidating the epigenetic and molecular mechanisms regulating these receptors expression, at characterizing their signaling transduction pathways in epithelial cells and to determine how they modulate cross talks between epithelial cells and immune cells.  Based on his work, P2 receptors play an integrative role by fine-tuning the signalization involved in normal physiological and pathophysiological functions of the intestinal epithelium. Further understanding of these processes will most definitely lead to the development of innovative approaches aimed at treating GI diseases.