Immunology Program

The Gretchen Diehl Lab

Research

Gretchen Diehl, PhD

Catherine and Frederick R. Adler Chair for Junior Faculty

The intestinal immune system faces a number of unique challenges due to continuous exposure to rapidly changing exogenous factors including diet and intestinal microbes. Proper calibration of responses is needed to clear invading pathogens as well as repair damage. Over enthusiastic responses within the intestine impair barrier repair, amplifying damage and potentially lead to systemic infection or chronic inflammatory disease including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We find that the intestinal microbiota and dietary factors can promote or inhibit proper immune regulation. As such, we seek to define molecular and cellular pathways regulated by the microbiota, dietary, and tissue factors that are required to maintain homeostasis within the intestine. In defining upstream signals, we are working to understand microbial pathways and how they modulate tissue immunity. In parallel, we seek to delineate how these networks are disrupted in inflammatory conditions.

Featured News

A Delicate Balance: Learning New Ways That Gut Microbes Educate the Immune System

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Researchers at the Sloan Kettering Institute have found that gut microbes shape the immune system of mice in an unexpected way.

Publications

Zegarra-Ruiz D.F., Kim D.V., Norwood K., Kim M., Wu W-J., Saldana-Morales F.B., Hill A.A., Majumdar S., Orozco, S., Bell, R., Round, J.L., Longman R.S., Egawa T., Bettini M.L.^#, Diehl GE^#. 2021. Thymic development of gut-microbiota-specific T cells. Nature. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03531-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03531-1

Saldana-Morales F.B., Kim D.V., Tsai M-T., Diehl G.E., 2021. Healthy Intestinal Function Relies on Coordinated Enteric Nervous System, Immune System, and Epithelium Responses. Gut Microbes. https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2021.1916376

Viladomiu M., Metz M.L., Lima S.F., Jin W-B., Chou L., JRI Live Cell Bank, Guo C-J., Diehl G.E., Simpson K.W., Scherl E.J., Longman R.S., 2021. Adherent-invasive E. coli metabolism of propanediol in Crohn’s disease regulates phagocytes to drive intestinal inflammation. Cell Host & Microbe. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2021.01.002.

Wu, W-J.H., Zegarra-Ruiz, D.F., Diehl G.E., 2020. Intestinal microbes in autoimmune and inflammatory disease. Frontiers in Immunology. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.597966 https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.597966

Kim M., Hill A.A., Wu W-J., Diehl G.E., 2019. Intestinal microbes direct CX₃CR1⁺ cells to balance intestinal immunity. Gut Microbes. 10: 540-546. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2018.1559683. https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2018.1559683

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People

Gretchen Diehl, PhD

Catherine and Frederick R. Adler Chair for Junior Faculty

The Diehl lab studies how the microbiota and other exogenous factors regulate development and function of the intestinal immune system.
PhD, University of California, Berkeley

diehlg1@mskcc.org: Email Address

Members

Lin-Chun Chang
Senior Research Scientist

Daniel Zegarra Ruiz
Postdoctoral Associate

Jasmine Loveras
Administrative Assistant II

Lab Affiliations

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

Postdoctoral positions

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Get in Touch

diehlg1@mskcc.org

Lab Head Email
646-888-3591

Lab Phone

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Gretchen Diehl discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period

The information published here is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2020 through disclosure submission in spring 2021). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at ecoi@mskcc.org.

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