Alan Huett
Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Contact
Biography
BSc (Microbiology, with intercalated year), University of Warwick (2000); Research Technician, PPL Therapeutics Ltd (1999); PhD, Imperial College, London (2004); Research Assistant, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (2004-5); Research Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (2005-2011).
Expertise Summary
I trained as a microbiologist and during my PhD studied the host-pathogen interface in the gut, using a model of Escherichia coli infection. For my post-doctoral training I moved to Boston, Massachusetts to gain experience in cell biology, high throughput screening, computation and genetics. During my time in the Xavier laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital I was able to bring my microbiology and cell biology / innate immunity interests together in the study of autophagy.
Autophagy is a crucial cellular process which serves to maintain cell viability under stress. During infections with invasive bacterial pathogens it also enables bacteria to be captured within specialised vacuoles and trafficked to the lysosomal compartment, where they are destroyed. I have been able to identify several molecules required for such anti-bacterial autophagy and currently am working to elucidate the signals used to target bacteria for autophagic destruction.
Much of my work employs high-content, high-thoughput screening approaches, automated image analysis tools and computation. Therefore I have a keen interest in novel labelling and imaging technologies.
Research Summary
I am interested in the role of autophagy in sensing and controlling bacterial infection. Many intracellular bacteria are targeted and destroyed by autophagy and we would like to know how the cell… read more
Selected Publications
HUETT A, NG A, CAO Z, KUBALLA P, KOMATSU M, DALY MJ, PODOLSKY DK and XAVIER RJ, 2009. A Novel Hybrid Yeast-Human Network Analysis Reveals An Essential Role For Fnbp1l In Antibacterial Autophagy. Journal Of Immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 182(8), 4917-30 MCCARROLL SA, HUETT A, KUBALLA P, CHILEWSKI SD, LANDRY A, GOYETTE P, ZODY MC, HALL JL, BRANT SR, CHO JH, DUERR RH, SILVERBERG MS, TAYLOR KD, RIOUX JD, ALTSHULER D, DALY MJ and XAVIER RJ, 2008. Deletion Polymorphism Upstream Of Irgm Associated With Altered Irgm Expression And Crohn's Disease. Nature Genetics. 40(9), 1107-12 RIOUX JD, XAVIER RJ, TAYLOR KD, SILVERBERG MS, GOYETTE P, HUETT A, GREEN T, KUBALLA P, BARMADA MM, DATTA LW, SHUGART YY, GRIFFITHS AM, TARGAN SR, IPPOLITI AF, BERNARD E, MEI L, NICOLAE DL, REGUEIRO M, SCHUMM LP, STEINHART AH, ROTTER JI, DUERR RH, CHO JH, DALY MJ and BRANT SR, 2007. Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies New Susceptibility Loci For Crohn Disease And Implicates Autophagy In Disease Pathogenesis. Nature Genetics. 39(5), 596-604
Current Research
I am interested in the role of autophagy in sensing and controlling bacterial infection. Many intracellular bacteria are targeted and destroyed by autophagy and we would like to know how the cell senses their presence and the bacterial strategies for autophagy avoidance.
More broadly, I am studying the role of secreted bacterial effector proteins and their effects upon cell biology. I hope to gain new insights into bacterial pathogenesis and discover novel pathways by which bacteria manipulate host cell biology. Using high-throughput, high-content screening technologies we image and analyse hundreds of bacterial proteins in mammalian cells - selecting those producing alterations in cellular physiology. Such screening techniques allow us to analyse many bacterial proteins otherwise difficult to study due to lack of genetic or other tools.