Janelle Ayres


Janelle S. Ayres is an American immunologist, microbiologist and physiologist, member of the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis and Helen McLoraine Developmental Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. Her research focuses on the relation of host-pathogen interactions with the microbiome.

Education

Ayres received her BA in molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley and her PhD at Stanford University School of Medicine in the laboratory of David Schneider, working on resistance and infection tolerance using the model organism Drosophila. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Russell Vance at the University of California, Berkeley where she published on the role of innate immunity in the recognition of drug resistant pathobionts, or potentially virulent species from the microbiome.

Research

Ayres current research focuses on how microbes can promote the health of their host organism. She uses mathematical and evolutionary models to predict how the beneficial microbes in the gut can be used to fight diseases. Specifically, her lab has demonstrated how a strain of E. coli prevents inflammation-induced wasting, and how a strain Salmonella inhibits sickness-induced anorexia, thus protecting their host from the deleterious effects of infection.

Publications

  1. Troha, K., Ayres, J.S. Metabolic Adaptations to Infections at the Organismal Level. Trends in Immunology. DOI: 10.1016/j.it.2019.12.001
  2. Ayres, J.S. Immunometabolism of infections. Nature Reviews Immunology. DOI: 10.1038/s41577-019-0266-9
  3. McCarville, J.L., Ayres, J.S. Host-Pathogen Relationship Advice: Fat Protects against a Broken Heart. Cell Metabolism. 30:409-411. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2019.08.007
  4. Wallace, M., Green, C.R., Roberts, L.S., Lee, Y.M., McCarville, J.L., Sanchez-Gurmaches, J., Meurs, N., Gengatharan, J.M., Hover, J.D., Phillips, S.A., Ciaraldi, T.P., Guertin, D.A., Cabrales, P., Ayres, J.S., Nomura, D.K., Loomba, R., Metallo, C.M. Enzyme promiscuity drives branched-chain fatty acid synthesis in adipose tissues. Nature Chemical Biology. 14:1021-1031. DOI: 10.1038/s41589-018-0132-2
  5. Sanchez, K.K., Chen, G.Y., Schieber, A.M.P., Redford, S.E., Shokhirev, M.N., Leblanc, M., Lee, Y.M., Ayres, J.S. Cooperative Metabolic Adaptations in the Host Can Favor Asymptomatic Infection and Select for Attenuated Virulence in an Enteric Pathogen. Cell. 175:146-158. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.07.016
  6. Chen, G.Y., Ayres, J.S. When the Gut Gets Tough, the Enterocytes Get Going. Immunity. 48:837-839. DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2018.04.036
  7. McCarville, J.L., Ayres, J.S. Disease tolerance: concept and mechanisms. Current Opinion in Immunology. 50:88-93. DOI: 10.1016/j.coi.2017.12.003
  8. Lee, Y.M., Ayres, J.S. Decoding the intestinal epithelium cell by cell. Nature Immunology. 19:7-9. DOI: 10.1038/s41590-017-0011-0
  9. Rao, S., Ayres, J.S. Resistance and tolerance defenses in cancer: Lessons from infectious diseases. Seminars in Immunology. 32:54-61. DOI: 10.1016/j.smim.2017.08.004
  10. Rauch, I., Deets, K.A., Ji, D.X., von Moltke, J., Tenthorey, J.L., Lee, A.Y., Philip, N.H., Ayres, J.S., Brodsky, I.E., Gronert, K., Vance, R.E. NAIP-NLRC4 Inflammasomes Coordinate Intestinal Epithelial Cell Expulsion with Eicosanoid and IL-18 Release via Activation of Caspase-1 and -8. Immunity. 46:649-659. DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2017.03.016
  11. Rao, S., Schieber, A.M., O'Connor, C.P., Leblanc, M., Michel, D., Ayres, J.S. Pathogen-Mediated Inhibition of Anorexia Promotes Host Survival and Transmission. Cell. 168:503-516.e12. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.01.006
  12. Ayres, J.S. Microbes Dress for Success: Tolerance or Resistance? Trends in Microbiology. 25:1-3. DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2016.11.006
  13. Schieber, A.M., Ayres, J.S. Thermoregulation as a disease tolerance defense strategy. Pathog Dis. 74. DOI: 10.1093/femspd/ftw106
  14. Ayres, J.S. Disease Tolerance Trick or Treat: Give Your Brain Something Good to Eat. Cell. 166:1368-70. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.08.034
  15. Ayres, J.S. Cooperative Microbial Tolerance Behaviors in Host-Microbiota Mutualism. Cell. 165:1323-1331. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.05.049
  16. Shen, R., Wang, B., Giribaldi, M.G., Ayres, J., Thomas, J.B., Montminy, M. Neuronal energy-sensing pathway promotes energy balance by modulating disease tolerance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 113:E3307-14. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1606106113
  17. Schieber, A.M., Lee, Y.M., Chang, M.W., Leblanc, M., Collins, B., Downes, M., Evans, R.M., Ayres, J.S. Disease tolerance mediated by microbiome E. coli involves inflammasome and IGF-1 signaling. Science. 350:558-63. DOI: 10.1126/science.aac6468
  18. Ayres, J.S. Inflammasome-microbiota interplay in host physiologies. Cell Host & Microbe. 14:491-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2013.10.013
  19. Manzanillo, P.S., Ayres, J.S., Watson, R.O., Collins, A.C., Souza, G., Rae, C.S., Schneider, D.S., Nakamura, K., Shiloh, M.U., Cox, J.S. The ubiquitin ligase parkin mediates resistance to intracellular pathogens. Nature. 501:512-6. DOI: 10.1038/nature12566
  20. von Moltke, J., Ayres, J.S., Kofoed, E.M., Chavarría-Smith, J., Vance, R.E. Recognition of bacteria by inflammasomes. Annual Review of Immunology. 31:73-106. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-immunol-032712-095944
  21. Ayres, J.S., Trinidad, N.J., Vance, R.E. Lethal inflammasome activation by a multidrug-resistant pathobiont upon antibiotic disruption of the microbiota. Nature Medicine. 18:799-806. DOI: 10.1038/nm.2729
  22. Ayres, J.S., Vance, R.E. Cellular teamwork in antibacterial innate immunity. Nature Immunology. 13:115-7. DOI: 10.1038/ni.2212

Award and honors