Dr. Eugene Butcher, Klaus Bensch Professor of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Laboratory of Immunology and Vascular Biology, Palo Alto VA Medical Center

Host: Sirpa Jalkanen

Prof. Butcher and his collaborators have made fundamental discoveries on cell-cell recognition, migration and development by using the mammalian immune system as a model. His work has been cited about 58 000 times and his H-index is 135 (web of science). His lab is using state-of-the-art molecular and genetic approaches, such as CyTOF to study the development and trafficking of white blood cells (e.g. lymphocytes, dendritic cells), including their interactions with the endothelial lining of blood vessels at sites of leukocyte extravasation, their chemotactic responses in tissues, and their programming by environmental factors in lymphoid tissues and within mucosal surfaces.

The Butcher laboratory applies these findings of fundamental biological problems to translational contexts, such as therapeutic manipulation of immune cell trafficking, for example in models of colitis, multiple sclerosis, atherosclerosis and psoriasis. Targets and insights from the lab’s research have led to clinical stage antibody and small molecule therapeutics for inflammatory bowel disease.

Prof. Butcher laboratory web page: http://butcherlab.stanford.edu

Selected publications

Trafficking receptor signatures define blood plasmablasts responding to tissue-specific immune challenge.
Seong Y, Lazarus NH, Sutherland L, Habtezion A, Abramson T, He XS, Greenberg HB, Butcher EC. JCI Insight. 2017 Mar 23;2(6)

Leukocyte chemoattractant receptors in human disease pathogenesis.
Zabel BA, Rott A, Butcher EC, Annu Rev Pathol. 2015;10:51-81.

Transcriptional programs of lymphoid tissue capillary and high endothelium reveal control mechanisms for lymphocyte homing.
Lee M, Kiefel H, LaJevic MD, Macauley MS, Kawashima H, O’Hara E, Pan J, Paulson JC, Butcher EC. Nature immunol. 2014;15(10):982-95.

Comparative transcriptional and functional profiling defines conserved programs of intestinal DC differentiation in humans and mice.
Watchmaker PB, Lahl K, Lee M, Baumjohann D, Morton J, Kim SJ, Zeng R, Dent A, Ansel KM, Diamond B, Hadeiba H, Butcher EC., Nature Immunol. 2014 Jan;15(1):98-108.