Howard Hang, PhD
Chair
Department of Immunology and Microbiology
Professor, Department of Immunology & Microbiology
Research Focus
My laboratory is broadly interested in the molecular mechanisms by which chemical signals modulate host microbe interactions in infection and immunity. These chemical signals (metabolites) may be derived from host metabolism (endogenous metabolites) or the environment (diet, microbiota, therapeutics) and have been challenging to mechanistically elucidate. To dissect the mechanisms that govern host-microbe interactions, my laboratory has 1) developed chemical methods to characterize metabolite-protein interactions and 2) employed key animal models to discover new protective factors from specific microbiota species and elucidated their mechanisms of action. These studies have revealed unpredicted metabolite-protein functions in host immunity and microbial pathogenesis as well as novel microbiota protective factors, which have afforded new therapeutic leads and biomarkers for infection, inflammation and immunotherapy.
Select Publications
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Luo, Ji-dung; Jha, Jyoti K.; Hang, Howard C.; Griffin, Matthew E.; Fanger, Gary R.; Espinosa, Juliel; Carroll, Thomas S.; Becker, Jessica L. Enterococcus peptidoglycan remodeling promotes checkpoint inhibitor cancer immunotherapy.. Science (New York, N.Y.) 2021, 1040-1046.
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Rangan, Kavita J.; Pedicord, Virgini A.; Wang, Yen- C.; Kim, Byungchul; Lu, Yun; Shaham, Shai; Mucida, Daniel; Hang, Howard C. A secreted bacterial peptidoglycan hydrolase enhances tolerance to enteric pathogens. 2016, 353, 1434-1437.
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Chen, Victor; Griffin, Matth E.; Maguin, Pascal; Varble, Andrew; Hang, Howard C. RecT Recombinase Expression Enables Efficient Gene Editing in spp. 2021, 87, e0084421.
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Zhang, Zhenrun J.; Pedicord, Virgini A.; Peng, Tao; Hang, Howard C. Site-specific acylation of a bacterial virulence regulator attenuates infection. Nature Chemical Biology 2020, 16, 95-103.
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Kim, Byungchul; Wang, Yen- C.; Hespen, Charles W.; Espinosa, Juliel; Salje, Jeanne; Rangan, Kavita J.; Oren, Deen A.; Kang, Jin Y.; Pedicord, Virgini A.; Hang, Howard C. Enterococcus faecium secreted antigen A generates muropeptides to enhance host immunity and limit bacterial pathogenesis. eLife 2019, 8.
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Wang, Yen- C.; Westcott, Nathan P.; Griffin, Matth E.; Hang, Howard C. Peptidoglycan Metabolite Photoaffinity Reporters Reveal Direct Binding to Intracellular Pattern Recognition Receptors and Arf GTPases. ACS Chemical Biology 2019, 14, 405-414.
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Spence, Jennifer S.; He, Ruina; Hoffmann, Hans-Heinrich H.; Das, Tandrila; Thinon, Emmanuelle; Rice, Charles M.; Peng, Tao; Chandran, Kartik; Hang, Howard C. IFITM3 directly engages and shuttles incoming virus particles to lysosomes. Nature Chemical Biology 2019, 15, 259-268.
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