Mindy A. Engevik, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department: Regenerative Medicine & Cell Biology
Programs: Cell Injury, Inflammation

Research Interests:

Dr. Engevik received her PhD from the University of Cincinnati, and joined the MUSC faculty in 2020 following postdoctoral work studying the interaction of microbial metabolites and the gut epithelium with a focus on inflammatory bowel disease at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX.

Dr. Engevik has pursued a lifetime interest in the interactions between microbes and epithelial cells of the gut. Her past graduate work included studies of immune system responses to Candida albicans fungus, mechanisms regulating ammonia transport in the colon, and ion transport-mediated regulation of the intestinal environment and gut microbiota by gut epithelial cells. She continued to study the interaction between microbial metabolites and the gut epithelium during her postdoctoral work. This postdoctoral work included pioneering studies on the utility of human intestinal organoids, also known as enteroids or colonoids, derived from tissue-derived stem cells for modeling microbe-host interactions.

Dr. Engevik’s current research continues to focus on microbial-host crosstalk, now with an emphasis on interactions between microbes and the intestinal mucus layer. This focus encompasses the two-sided nature of these interactions: the beneficial effects on host health mediated by commensal microbe modulation of the mucus layer, and the subversion of mucus function during infection by colonizing pathogens. These efforts are facilitated by the availability of both animal and human organoid model systems through the DDRCC and CDLD cores.

Publications:

PubMed Collection

Engevik Lab