Esen Sefik, PhD

Dr. Sefik [HHMI Fellow] is examining the connection between obesity, cancer and the microbiome. An estimated 600 million people worldwide suffer from obesity, with 15-20% of deaths from cancer in the US alone linked to obesity. Recent studies in mice highlight the importance of intestinal bacteria and immune cells in obesity and colorectal cancer; however, these roles are not yet well characterized in humans. She will   analyze how high fat diet and obesity-associated intestinal bacteria change intestinal immunity in mice that harbor the human immune system and the human microbiota. This will help resolve some of the existing discrepancies and discover new players that are relevant to obesity and cancer in humans and help engineer better-targeted, combined therapies to colorectal cancer, especially in cases where existing immunotherapy fails.