Posts by Ramnik Joseph Xavier, MD, PhD
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Cholesterol-reducing Gut Bacteria Might Lower Heart Disease Risk
Ramnik J. Xavier, MD, PhD, Chenhao Li, PhD, Martin Stražar, PhD, and colleagues have found that cholesterol metabolism is an important property of certain gut bacteria, Oscillibacter, with potential benefits for lipid homeostasis and cardiovascular health.
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No Unique Microbiome Detected in Pancreatic Cyst Fluid
Mass General researchers and colleagues investigated claims that pancreatic cyst fluid harbors a distinct microbiome, but they didn't uncover one difference from the microbiome signature of negative controls, supporting the traditional view of the pancreas as a sterile environment.
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Host Factors Identified That Regulate Latency of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Ramnik J. Xavier, MD, PhD, Haroon Kalam, PhD, and colleagues have identified the host transcriptome involved in various phenotypic states of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection of macrophages and have pinpointed MMGT1–GPR156 signaling as a regulator of the lipid droplet formation that helps latent Mtb survive.
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Single-Cell Map of Crohn's Disease Provides New Directions for Drug Development
Ramnik J. Xavier, MD, PhD, Lingjia Kong, PhD, and colleagues have produced the largest single-cell resource for studying Crohn's disease. This atlas provides unprecedented detail about cellular and transcriptomic changes that are distinct between the small and large intestines.
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Multi-omics Approach Detects Gut Microbiome–mediated Metabolism Effects on Immunity
Using a multi-omics approach to compare rural and urban Tanzanian populations, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital identified 34 gut microbial factors and two metabolism pathways that modulate host immune responses.
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Insight into How Human Cells Fight Bacteria—and How Bacteria Fight Back
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have identified SAC1, a transmembrane lipid phosphatase, as a key regulator of xenophagy-directed bacterial clearance and show that SteA, a Salmonella-secreted effector protein, supports intracellular replication.
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Electronic Health Records Can Be Used to Validate Genetic Determinants of Treatment Response in IBD
For patients with inflammatory bowel disease, narrative text in electronic health records was successfully used to validate associations between genetic risk scores and response to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors—a potential boon to identifying biomarkers of response to different drug classes.
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IBD Multiomics Database May Be Rich Source of New Treatment Targets
Gastroenterologists at Massachusetts General Hospital are part of the Integrative Human Microbiome Project, which recently cataloged numerous molecular features of the gut microbiome that are implicated in inflammatory bowel disease.
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Identifying the Significance of Microbiome Diversity
The Center for the Study of IBD at Massachusetts General Hospital is leading research to understand how the microbiome influences health and disease.
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Discovering the Role of C1orf106 in Patients with IBD
C1orf106 is a known susceptibility gene for inflammatory bowel disease, and now Massachusetts General researchers have identified its role: it "fine tunes" the integrity of the intestinal epithelial barrier.
Biography
- Elected Member, American Association of Physicians
- Senior Associate Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
- Principal Investigator, Center for Computational and Integrative Biology
Digestive Healthcare at Mass General
The Massachusetts General Hospital Digestive Healthcare Center is a collaborative practice of gastroenterologists, endoscopists, surgeons, radiologists, pathologists, hepatologists, oncologists and radiation oncologists dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of digestive diseases.