Eugene Butcher

Postdoctoral Advisees

Kareem Graham , Narveen Jandu , Katharina Lahl , Justin Monnier , Linh Nguyen , Cecilia Oderup , Russell Pachynski , Payal Watchmaker , Maria Zoudilova

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Cancer Biology
• Immunology
• Microbiology and Immunology
• Pathology

Web Site Links

• Butcher Lab Home Page

Industry Relationships

Stanford is committed to ethical and transparent interactions with our industry partners. It is our policy to disclose payments of $5,000 or more, equity valued at $5,000 or more in a publicly traded company, or any equity in a privately held company, to physicians and scientists employed by Stanford University from companies or other commercial entities with which they interact as part of their professional activities. View Full Information

Current Research Interests

Research Interests

We study the trafficking of white blood cells (lymphocytes, dendritic cells, monocytes, etc.), including their interactions with the endothelial lining of blood vessels at sites of leukocyte extravasation, and their chemotactic responses in tissues. These events regulate immune responses by controlling the access of leukocytes to sites of inflammatory or immune reaction in the body. We have shown that lymphocytes use a variety of different adhesion molecules or "homing receptors" to recognize organ (and/or inflammation)-specific vascular ligands or "addressins" that define the tissue position (address) of blood vessels in the body. Our studies have shown that these adhesion receptors act coordinately with G protein-linked serpentine chemoattractant receptors in a multi-step process that controls the specificity and provides combinatorial diversity in leukocyte trafficking.

A major focus of the group is on understanding the physiologic significance and control of targeted lymphocyte trafficking. To this end, we are studying the specialized homing mechanisms and functional properties of tissue infiltrating lymphocytes involved in local immune, autoimmune and regulatory responses in the GI tract (intestines, liver), skin, lungs, and other sites. Genetic, antibody and small molecule-based approaches allow us to define the role of trafficking molecules and mechanisms in models of autoimmune and infectious diseases. We are also exploring mechanisms that imprint lymphocyte homing and chemokine receptor expression during tissue-specific immune responses, and are developing techniques to recapitulate such regulation in vitro for cell targeting and therapy. Dendritic cells (DC) play an important role in this context, and we are interested in the mechanisms by which specialized DC “interpret” and process local environmental signals (e.g. vitamins, metabolites, cytokines) to control T cell trafficking and regulatory vs....

Publications

• DCs metabolize sunlight-induced vitamin D3 to 'program' T cell attraction to the epidermal chemokine CCL27. Sigmundsdottir H, Pan J, Debes GF, Alt C, Habtezion A, Soler D, Butcher EC. Nat Immunol. 2007; 8 (3): 285-93
• Chemokine-like receptor 1 expression by macrophages in vivo: regulation by TGF-beta and TLR ligands. Zabel BA, Ohyama T, Zuniga L, Kim JY, Johnston B, Allen SJ, Guido DG, Handel TM, Butcher EC. Exp Hematol. 2006; 34 (8): 1106-14
• CD8+ recent thymic emigrants home to and efficiently repopulate the small intestine epithelium. Staton TL, Habtezion A, Winslow MM, Sato T, Love PE, Butcher EC. Nat Immunol. 2006; 7 (5): 482-8
• Role for CXCR6 in recruitment of activated CD8+ lymphocytes to inflamed liver. Sato T, Thorlacius H, Johnston B, Staton TL, Xiang W, Littman DR, Butcher EC. J Immunol. 2005; 174 (1): 277-83
• Can cell systems biology rescue drug discovery? Butcher EC, Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2005; 4 (6): 461-7