Kathryn E. Hamilton

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Kathryn E. Hamilton, PhD

Investigator

Dr. Hamilton studies intestinal epithelial cells and how they help maintain human health. Although there is a great deal understood about how these cells function, little is known about how they behave during disease. Dr. Hamilton focuses on defining new mechanisms in regenerative medicine, inflammatory bowel disease, and colorectal cancer.

Hamilton Lab

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Bio

Dr. Hamilton's research program specializes in understanding mechanisms regulating gut homeostasis in health and disease, with a specific interest in epithelial cell responses to damage and inflammation. She employs in vivo models and primary, 3D enteroid and colonoid cultures from mice and humans to understand the molecular basis of intestinal regeneration, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer.

Within these contexts, one area Dr. Hamilton and her lab focus upon is how RNA binding proteins impart global, post-transcriptional regulation of key pathways in normal physiology and pathophysiology.

Among her notable accomplishments to date, Dr. Hamilton:

Identified some of the first-known in vivo roles for RNA binding protein IMP1 in colorectal cancer models, demonstrating context-specific oncogenic and tumor suppressive roles
Generated one of the first large banks of 3D, human tissue-derived enteroids and colonoids (“mini-guts”) from pediatric patients with IBD, including patients with very early onset (VEO)-IBD