Karen Edelblum, PhD

Dr. Edelblum began her training in the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University. During her graduate training, Dr. Edelblum focused on the role of Raf-1 kinase in intestinal epithelial cell survival downstream of pro-inflammatory cytokine signaling and in response to acute colitis. Fascinated by the synergy between immunological, epithelial and microbial factors during the pathogenesis of colitis, she continued her training at The University of Chicago where she developed novel advanced live imaging approaches to visualize immune/epithelial interactions in the intestinal mucosa during exposure to enteric pathogens. Combining traditional cell biology and mucosal immunology techniques has allowed Dr. Edelblum to investigate gamma delta T cell migration and how direct contact between gamma delta T cells and enterocytes confer protection against enteric pathogen invasion. Dr. Edelblum's long-term research interests are to identify how gamma delta T cell/epithelial interactions shape innate immune responses to pathogenic and commensal bacteria as a means to treat inflammatory bowel disease.