Faculty
Janelle C. Arthur, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Dr. Arthur is an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. A native of the Boston area, Dr. Arthur received her undergraduate degree in biotechnology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. She then moved to North Carolina to pursue her PhD in Immunology & Microbiology at UNC with Dr. Jenny Ting. Supported by an NIH NIAID T32 pre-doctoral fellowship, Dr. Arthur identified an important role for a newly discovered intracellular innate immunity protein, NLRP12, in controlling immune cell migration. During the transition to postdoctoral research, Dr. Arthur joined the Department of Medicine under the direction of Dr. Christian Jobin, where she was funded by a postdoctoral NIH NIDDK T32 fellowship and an American Cancer Society fellowship. Here, she became fascinated with the newly appreciated gut microbiota and its role in intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer. This field was in its infancy, ripe with unanswered questions, and had the potential to become a novel therapeutic target for both systemic and digestive diseases. Dr. Arthur’s research revealed that chronic intestinal inflammation induces an expansion of resident bacteria with specific cancer-promoting activities. Dr. Arthur further developed her independent research with mentoring from Dr. R. Balfour Sartor and joined the UNC’s Microbiology & Immunology department as faculty in 2015.
In the microbiome field, the association of microbial dysbiosis with intestinal inflammation is generally accepted, but the functional consequences of this altered microbial community on the development of inflammation-associated co-morbidities such as fibrosis and colorectal cancer are essentially unknown. Dr. Arthur’s research has contributed to a greater understanding of mechanisms by which resident intestinal microbes can influence inflammation, fibrosis, and neoplasia. This work has been published in Science, Nature Communications, Immunity, among others. Dr. Arthur has been awarded funding from the NIH NIDDK, Rainin Foundation, the American Gastroenterological Association, North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute, the UNC Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease, and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Currently, Dr. Arthur continues to evaluate the relationship between the gut microbiota, intestinal inflammation, and inflammation-associated co-morbidities with the ultimate goal of identifying novel microbial targets for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of digestive diseases.
Speaker Disclosure Statement:
Janelle C. Arthur, PhD, has no relationships to disclose.