Ashutosh K. Mangalam

Ashutosh Mangalam is an Associate Professor in Pathology Department at University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA. He received his undergraduate degree from Lucknow University, (Lucknow, India) Master in Biotechnology from Devi Ahilya University (Indore, India), and Ph.D. from Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, India.

During his postdoctoral fellowship, he worked on deciphering the role of HLA class II genes in susceptibility versus resistance in multiple sclerosis (MS) an inflammatory and autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. MS is linked to both genetic and environmental factors. As the HLA locus is the strongest genetic factor linked with this disease, he utilized novel humanized transgenic mice expressing different human HLA-DR or HLA-DQ alleles to authenticate the importance of these HLA molecules. His findings indicated that only HLA-DR molecules are required for disease susceptibility, and HLA-DQ molecules might be responsible for modulating the disease in a susceptible background. He extended these studies to show that HLA molecules regulate autoimmune/inflammatory diseases through the modulation of cytokines networks.

While analyzing one of the failed experiments in his laboratory, Ashutosh identified Prevotella histicola, a human gut-derived commensal, with potential disease suppressing properties. He received funding from the Department of Defense to test the therapeutic potential of P. histicola. This funding led to his entry into the exciting field of human microbiome research. Dr. Mangalam received internal funding from the Mayo Center for Individualized Medicine to study the importance of the gut microbiome in human MS patients. He was also part of the Human Microbiome Program Initiative at Mayo Clinic Rochester. His initial work on fecal microbiome profiling was among the first from the US to show MS patients have gut dysbiosis. His observation that Prevotella is depleted in MS patients had been validated by researchers all across the globe. He believes that the study of the human gut microbiome and metabolome holds great promise for better understanding of MS as well as other inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

Ashutosh received a research grant from National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), and in 2015 was he was recruited as faculty at University of Iowa. His research program is focused on understanding the interaction between gut microbiota, diet, environmental contaminant(s), and the immune response. He is specifically interested in determining how these interactions can influence the development of diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), obesity, and cancer. To achieve this goal, his research program focuses on the following major interconnected themes: i) to understand the role of gut microbiome and metabolome in the pathogenesis of MS; ii) utilize transgenic mice expressing MS susceptible and resistant HLA class II molecules (HLA transgenic mice) to understand the mechanisms of disease pathogenesis; iii) harness the therapeutic potential of gut-derived bacteria as drug (BRUG) in MS and cancer; and iv) determine the role of gut microbiome in Glyphosate (a pesticide) induced toxicity in diseases such as obesity.