Professional Bio
Lydia Wroblewski, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
She received her BS in physiology from the University of Liverpool, U.K., and her PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Liverpool, where she focused on the molecular regulation of matrix metalloproteinases. Following her graduate work, Dr. Wroblewski completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Richard Peek, MD, at Vanderbilt University. During this time, she led several critical projects including identification of a novel mechanism through which H. pylori alters junctional complexes via redistribution of occludin, and defining the requisite bacterial and host factors that influence this phenotype, thus contributing to research focused to define the mechanisms through which H. pylori leads to gastric cancer.
Dr. Wroblewski has continued her high-impact research in the area of H. pylori pathogenesis and was subsequently promoted to Research Assistant Professor. Her research has been recognized nationally and internationally, collectively prompting numerous presentations at local, national, and international meetings as well as many high-impact publications.
Dr. Wroblewski has developed a novel gastroid model system for studying H. pylori pathogenesis. Gastroids effectively bridge in vitro and in vivo models by providing a replenishable culture system that can readily be generated from non-transformed gastric epithelium. She demonstrated that gastroids have the ability to develop into a self-organizing differentiation axis via expansion into single-layered epithelial spheroid structures that consist of all the major cell types in the gastric epithelium.
In a separate project, Dr. Wroblewski used lineage tracing in mice to demonstrate that chronic H. pylori infection stimulates Lrig1-expressing progenitor activity in a cag-dependent manner and these cells give rise to a full spectrum of differentiated cells including chief cells, as well as spasmolytic polypeptide-expressing metaplasia (SPEM). She also demonstrated that the cag pathogenicity island is a key mediator of epithelial progenitor cell responsiveness that develops following H. pylori infection and provided further insight into oncogenic events that develop in response to this pathogen.
Publications
Education
PhD - Physiology - University of Liverpool, 2003
Fellowship - GI - Vanderbilt University, 2010
Contact
Email
Kimryn.Rathmell@Vumc.Org
Address
777 Preston Research Building
2220 Pierce Ave
Nashville, TN 37232-6307