Dr Alison Kohan
Disclosure details
NoneAssociate Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Alison Kohan, PhD, FAHA, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr Kohan’s expertise is in the areas of dietary fat absorption, chylomicron metabolism, and Foxp3+Tregs. Dr Kohan has made major contributions to identifying chylomicron triglyceride metabolism as a key regulator of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, and Atherosclerosis.
The Kohan Lab has shown that apolipoprotein (apo) C-III inhibits chylomicron secretion into the mesenteric lymphatics [PMID: 24760506], while also regulating intracellular triglyceride metabolism in enterocytes [PMID: 31152000]. This work has positioned apoC-III as a key regulator of dietary lipid absorption in addition to its known role in cardiovascular disease [PMID: 25692924]. Most recently, the Kohan Lab has discovered that chylomicrons containing apoC-III, or the inhibition of apoC-III’s major receptor LDLR, shifts Foxp3+ Treg metabolism, Treg accumulation in the gut, and Treg suppressive activity. This work has uncovered a role for lipoproteins in delivery fuel to Tregs, and the importance of this mechanism in inflammatory disease.
To make these discoveries, the Kohan 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 [PMID: 28159868] and have subsequently established a unique surgical lymph cannulation model in mice for the collection of flowing mesenteric lymph for 6-h after an intra-duodenal lipid infusion [PMID: 36152881; PMID: 36533833]. The Kohan Lab is one of the world’s only labs that can collect post-prandial lymph in real-time as nutrients are being activity absorbed.
Dr Kohan is also a local and national advocate for traditionally minoritized students, women, and those who differ by life experiences and social identities in science. Her service work focuses on the structural inequities that hinder the participation of these groups in science. Dr Kohan is particularly proud of her mentorship work with the McNair Scholars program (at the University of Connecticut from 2014 – 2019, where she received the Outstanding Mentorship Award in 2017), and she has been a continuous member of the ATVB Diversity Committee and ATVB Early Career Committee since 2016.
