Upcoming Events

Join us on June 2 & 3, 2022 for the annual Having IMPACTT: Advancing Microbiome Research Symposium at the Malcolm Hotel in beautiful Canmore, Alberta, Canada.

This exciting two-day microbiome symposium will highlight the latest microbiome research from across Canada and around the world.

Media

Member of the Royal Canadian Society!

As an internationally recognized leader in the field of microbiome and health research, Dr. McCoy has made fundamental discoveries highlighting how the maternal and early life microbiome instructs development and function of the immune system. Her basic discoveries have also been instrumental in defining the mechanisms by which the microbiome regulates immune responsiveness during cancer immunotherapy.

More reading about the RCS Class of 2021:
Official RCS Release
Discover all the new members of the RSC Class of 2021 – full list

Most pretigious UCalgary Research Chair

The Killam Memorial Chair is the most prestigious research chair available at the University of Calgary. It acknowledges internationally recognized scholars in all areas of sciences (health, natural, or social) and engineering with an outstanding and impactful contribution to knowledge translation. Since its creation in 1967, only six distinguished scholars have held this prestigious recognition. With the Killiam Memorial Chair's support, Dr. McCoy will "perform exciting and innovative research over the next five years" and "hope to explore new questions and generate preliminary data that can be leveraged to apply for additional funds to follow exciting discoveries". Dr. McCoy "will address new research questions that are considered high-risk yet high-reward for which funding through traditional channels is more difficult to obtain." Read more about this news.

Learn about the IMPACTT Microbiome Research Core

with Dr. McCoy, Director of this Pan-Canadian initiative.

Discover the aims, expertise, network & activities of IMPACTT. See how this microbiome research Core aims to help Canadian microbiome researchers move from causal to translational studies to improve people's health and well-being.

TUNE IN!

Should we call ourself Human or Super-organism ?

Learn about the hidden connection between our lifestyle, and our microbes with Dr. McCoy in this Gut Talk on the Human Microbiome from January 16, 2020.

November 28, 2019

In this article from the University of Calgary, Dr. McCoy gives her views on the key roles our microbes plays into shaping our Health. February 18, 2017.

Live tweets

Hurray !

Congratulation to our talented Master student Noah Cooke for being awarded a CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship. Well done!

Our latest publications !

Most up to date list here!

In this study, the authors identified microbial D-lactate, as a modulator of an intravascular immune firewall that protects against the spread of bacterial infections via the bloodstream.
Using an interdisciplinary approach, the authors identified three bacterial species that significantly enhanced the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in four mouse models of cancer! This promising study" identifies a novel microbial metabolite-immune pathway that may be exploited to develop microbial-based adjuvant therapies."
In this intercontinental research effort between Switzerland, Norway, Germany and Canada, Dr. H. Li, colleagues and international collaborators notably Dr. K.D. McCoy, used “localized time-limited exposures of defined doses of single benign microbial taxa in germ-free mice” to “address how the B cell repertoire is shaped by microbiota exposure at mucous membranes or in systemic lymphoid tissues, and how interactions between different exposure sites or subsequent exposures to different taxa affect the outcome”.
Using a mouse model of spontaneous autoimmune myocarditis, we show that progression of myocarditis to lethal heart disease depends on cardiac myosin–specific TH17 cells imprinted in the intestine by a commensal Bacteroides species peptide mimic ...The ability to restrain cardiotoxic T cells through manipulation of the microbiome thereby transforms inflammatory cardiomyopathy into a targetable disease.
Here we report that mice colonized with a combination of bacterial species with specific characteristics is required to inhibit IgE levels... inhibition of IgE induction can be mediated by specific microbes and their associated metabolic pathways and immunogenic properties.
Here we report that mice colonized with a combination of bacterial species with specific characteristics is required to inhibit IgE levels... inhibition of IgE induction can be mediated by specific microbes and their associated metabolic pathways and immunogenic properties.
Through effects on early-life colonization, immune development, and neurodevelopment, the maternal microbiota regulates susceptibility to a number of childhood illnesses and can vertically transmit dysbiosis-mediated pathologies.
Appropriate priming of tolerogenic or effector immune responses is crucial for intestinal homeostasis. Esterhazy et al. (Nature, 2019) reveal how compartmentalization of lymphatic drainage to functionally distinct lymph nodes facilitates the simultaneous induction of tolerogenic and effector responses.
The microbiota plays an important role in regulating both the innate and adaptive immune systems. This review highlight the role of the microbiota in the induction of immune memory with a focus on both adaptive and innate memory as well as vaccine efficacy.

Never stop learning ! See all our publications here

Kathy is live - videos

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