Alison B. Kohan Ph.D.

Dr. Kohan’s expertise is in the areas of dietary fat absorption, lipoprotein metabolism, and CD4⁺Tregs. Dr. Kohan has made major contributions to identifying chylomicron triglyceride metabolism as a key instigator of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, and Atherosclerosis. Her lab has shown that apolipoprotein (apo) C-III, a significant cardiovascular risk factor, also regulates intracellular metabolism in enterocytes. Through this physiological mechanism, apoC-III also inhibits chylomicron secretion into the mesenteric lymphatics. Most recently, Dr. Kohan’s lab has discovered that chylomicrons containing apoC-III, or the inhibition of apoC-III’s major receptor Ldlr, shifts CD4⁺ Treg metabolism, accumulation in the gut, and Treg suppression in IBD. To make these discoveries, her lab has pioneered unique model systems. The Kohan Lab was the first lab to engineer primary intestinal organoid cultures for studies of dietary lipid absorption, and they have subsequently established a unique surgical mouse lymph cannulation model that enables the collection of flowing mesenteric lymph from live mice for 6-h after a duodenal nutrient infusion. This makes the Kohan Lab one of the only in the world to collect post-prandial lymph in >50ul quantities in a single day.