The McCoy Lab seeks to better understand how human-microbe interactions impact disease. The McCoy Lab at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine (WUSM) opened on July 1, 2021. As a practicing dermatologist, the lab’s principal investigator (PI: William H. McCoy IV, M.D., Ph.D.) has focused many of the lab’s investigations on interactions that occur at epithelial barrier sites, like human skin. In the McCoy Lab, we are particularly interested in studying nutritional immunity, a part of the innate immune system that restricts microbial growth by sequestering micronutrients (e.g., transition metals like iron). Nutritional immunity is an understudied component of human barrier defense, and our lab believes that it serves an integral role by supporting healthy skin microbes and restricting the growth of skin pathogens.
For our investigations, the McCoy Lab uses a wide array of state-of-the-art approaches to study the human microbiome (e.g., Illumina, Nanopore), microbial metabolism (mass spectrometry [MS]-based metabolomics and proteomics), and protein-ligand interactions (e.g., protein crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy). In addition to these advanced approaches, the McCoy Lab also employs molecular biology, microbiology, immunology, and protein biochemistry techniques. Our lab’s current projects include:
- Cutibacterium acnes opportunistic infections
- Gastrointestinal microbiota effects on immunotherapy
- Development of DNA-modifying enzymes epigenome studies
While our technical approaches frequently dive into the molecular details of an interaction, our lab’s scientific questions and many of our reagents (e.g., human tissue samples, microbe strains) come from study subjects and generous patients. As such, the goal of every McCoy Lab member is to come full circle with each project (bedside-to-bench-to-bedside), so that we can use our translational research program to improve the care of patients. If you’d like to join our team, please contact us!