How liver X receptor regulates intestinal regeneration and tumor growth

Interviewer: We're joined today by Dr. Srustidhar Das from the Karolinska Institute to discuss his Nature paper published with colleagues in November 2024. The study reveals that the liver X receptor pathway plays a key role in balancing intestinal regeneration and tumor suppression, highlighting its potential as a therapeutic target for promoting tissue repair and preventing cancer. Dr. Das, thank you so much for joining us today. Dr. Das: Thanks for the invitation and it's a great honor to be here talking about our work just recently published last year. Honored to be here. Interviewer: Thank you very much. Can you start by describing what brought you to look into the pathways that uncouple tumor growth from regenerative processes? Dr. Das: That's a great question. Throughout my research career, I have been deeply interested in understanding how tissue damage, repair and tumorigenesis are interconnected. I started during my PhD at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where I worked on membrane-bound mucins and their roles in intestinal inflammation, regeneration and cancer development. That research led the groundwork for my postdoctoral work here at Karolinska Institute where I shifted my focus to how tissue damage influences intestinal epithelial regeneration and particularly in the conditions like inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. IBD or inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gut and traditionally viewed as an immune-driven condition, and hence, most therapies,