UPDATES FROM THE HOWITT LAB
June 15, 2024
Leila’s hot streak continues!
First Leila received The Firestone Medal for excellence in Undergraduate research. Then she won the David M. Kennedy Honors Thesis Prize. The Kennedy prize is given to the single best honors thesis in the Natural Sciences for all Stanford Undergraduates. Way to go Leila!
April 13, 2024
Congratulations Leila on winning the J. E. Wallace Sterling Award!
April 12, 2024
Goodbye Connie!
As one of the original members of the lab, it is hard to believe that you are moving on. You’ve contributed enormously to our science, culture, and community. We will miss you! Gilead Sciences is getting an amazing Research Scientist.
January 4, 2024
Congratulations to Eli, Claire, Michael, and their amazing collaborators on publishing their research article in Cell!
Protists are widely present in the gut microbiotas of animals, including humans! In this paper, we described new species of symbiotic protists belonging to the parabasalia phyla that engage in distinct transkingdom competition with bacteria and generate disparate immune responses in their hosts. We think this paper is just the tip of the iceberg in how the diverse biology of protists impact the gut environment.
This paper was also highlighted by Nature and presents our findings for a more general audience.
November 14, 2023
Congratulations to Eli, Michael, and their collaborators (especially Shelly Silverstein) on publishing their research article in mBio!
In this paper, Eli surveyed the diversity of intestinal parabasalid protists in wild and captive reptiles, and determined how gene expression is altered in these protists with shifts to cold temperatures. This fun project all started when Eli’s tortoise Shelly kindly donated a sample, which led to the discovery that she harbors commensal protists in her gut! Pictured on the right is Shelly with a beautiful SEM of her protist, Trichomitus batrachorum.
May 30, 2023
Congratulations to Connie, Gabe, Matthew, Michael, and their collaborators in the Salzman Lab on publishing their research article in PNAS!
Why do intestinal tuft cells sense the metabolite succinate and orchestrate type 2 immunity when it doesn’t appear to help them clear parasite infections? This work reveals that tuft cells detect spikes in commensal-derived succinate during microbiota disturbances, and the resulting type 2 immune response leads to increased Paneth cell numbers and profound shifts in antimicrobial peptide (AMP) production. These changes, in turn, alter the bacterial microbiota composition. This suggests that tuft cells and type 2 immunity may not only play anti-parasitic roles—instead, tuft cells may utilize succinate sensing and type 2 immunity to modulate intestinal bacterial homeostasis.
H&E image of the small intestinal epithelium, where a spike in commensal-derived succinate led to Paneth cell hyperplasia in the crypts and altered AMP production.
April 11, 2023
Congratulations to Matthew, Claire, and Michael on publishing their research article on schistosomiasis and human colonic tuft and goblet cells in Parasite Immunology!
January 18, 2023
Congratulations to Flora for passing her Doctoral Qualifying Exam!
October 14, 2022
Congratulations to Connie and Leila for winning prizes at this year’s Pathology Department retreat!
Connie wins the Charles B. Carrington Memorial Award for outstanding poster presentation, while Leila won first place for the retreat science art competition with her beautiful microscopy image, “Orgaynoids” (shown at the right)!
August 4th, 2022
Congratulations to Michael, Katherine, and Miles on publishing their review article about succinate, tuft cells, and implications for food allergies!
June 21st, 2022
Welcome Flora!
Flora joins the lab as a graduate student.
May 27th, 2022
Goodbye Matthew!
Once again, we bid another of the founding Howitt Lab members a bittersweet goodbye as he moves on to attend medical school at the University of Colorado. Thanks for everything, and good luck in the next phase of your career!
March 29th, 2022
Congratulations to Leila for being awarded the Stanford Undergraduate STEM Fellows Program Fellowship!
March 22nd, 2022
Congratulations to Gabe for being awarded the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship!
January 28th, 2022
Connie filmed a video explaining her research for the A.P. Giannini Fellowship, and it’s finally released!
Check out the video here: Crossroads: Uncovering Novel Signaling Molecules to Clear Parasites from our Guts
December 9th, 2021
Congratulations to Gabe for passing his Doctoral Qualifying Exam!
October 28th, 2021
Congratulations to Miles for passing his Doctoral Qualifying Exam!
June 29, 2021
Welcome Gabe, Miles, Leila, and Claire!
The lab doubles in size! Welcome to our newest members: graduate students Gabe Barrón and Miles Tyner, undergraduate student Leila DeSchepper, and research technician Claire Mechler.
June 7, 2021
Congratulations to Eli for being awarded the Pediatric IBD and Celiac Disease Research Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Stanford Maternal & Child Health Research Institute!
April 2, 2021
Goodbye Jess!
We bid the first ever Howitt Lab member a bittersweet goodbye as she moves on to a new research associate position at Mitokinin. Thanks for all that you’ve done for us, and good luck in the next phase of your scientific career!
March 15, 2021
Congratulations to Connie for being awarded the A.P. Giannini Postdoctoral Research Fellowship!
March 1, 2021
We received our first R01 from the NIH to study protists in the microbiota and gut immunity!
January 29, 2021
Michael is featured in a Time magazine article on gut immunity!
January 1, 2021
Congratulations to Connie for being awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Stanford Maternal & Child Health Research Institute!
December 14th, 2020
Congratulations to Katherine for passing her Doctoral Qualifying Exam!
June 12th, 2020
Congrats Eli for being awarded the School of Medicine Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship!
April 2nd, 2020
Welcome Katherine!
Katherine joins the lab as our first graduate student.
January 8th, 2020
Michael receives the Jacob Churg Award.
January 1st, 2020
Congratulations to Michael, Matthew, and Jess on publishing their paper in Immunohorizons!
December 19th, 2019
Michael receives the AGA-Pfizer Young Investigator Pilot Research Award in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
December 13th, 2019
Congrats Connie for being awarded the School of Medicine Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship!
November 15th, 2019
Quanta Magazine writes about some of our work.
Lucy Reading-Ikkanda/Quanta Magazine
October 18th, 2019
Congrats Eli for winning the Charles B. Carrington Memorial Award for Outstanding Poster Presentation at this year’s Pathology Research Retreat!
June 25th, 2018
Welcome Jess!
Jessica Li joins the lab as our first member.
September 12, 2019
Ada finishes her summer internship and leaves for her undergraduate studies at UCLA.
July 10th, 2019
Welcome Ada!
Ada Chung joins us for a summer research internship.
March 29th, 2019
Some of our work is highlighted in Science Magazine.
March 1st, 2019
Welcome Connie!
Connie Fung starts her postdoc in the lab.
August 29th 2018
Welcome Matthew!
Matthew Gologorsky joins the lab.
July 16th, 2018
Welcome Eli!
Eli Gerrick starts his postdoc.
December 1st, 2017
Howitt Lab starts!
Some news stories about our research:
ILLUSTRATION: V. ALTOUNIAN/SCIENCE
November 1st, 2018
Congratulations Eli on being awarded the Stanford Immunology Postdoctoral Fellowship!
