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Katherine King MD PhD

@thekinglab.bsky.social

430 followers 250 following 61 posts

Professor in Pediatric Infectious Disease researching effects of infection, inflammation, and the microbiome on hematopoietic stem cells and their progeny. How do infections affect bone marrow and vice versa? Co-Director of BCM MSTP. 🌈

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

And here it is! Our study in clonal hematopoiesis and Alzheimer’s disease — product of 5 years’ gestation. urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=htt...

ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.

urldefense.proofpoint.com

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · 11d

Great science, food, and hospitality at #ISEH2025 Kumamoto. Several new collaborations planned!

Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · 13d

I am so grateful to be able to spend time with colleagues at #iseh2025. Fantastic science and community.

Keisuke Ito @keisukeito-lab.bsky.social · 15d

Ready for #ISEH2025 Scientific Session? After 1.5 days of rich, productive discussions, @isehsociety.bsky.social leadership & Board of Directors are all set—with the full program and even the social events lined up!
@thekinglab.bsky.social @smckinneyfreeman.bsky.social @nickvangastel.bsky.social

Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Sep 8

@rcao1001.bsky.social @bcmfromthelabs.bsky.social @texaschildrens.bsky.social

Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Sep 8

Central trained immunity is still a nascent field— is there true reprogramming of hematopoietic progenitors to influence innate immunity, or is this selection for lineage biased cells? We explore the nuances in this new review. doi.org/10.7554/eLif... awesome collab with Eva Kaufmann and team!

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells as a reservoir for trained immunity

Inflammation supports selection, differentiation bias, and epigenetic reprogramming of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to generate innate immune memory.

doi.org

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Aug 30

Less than a month until ISEH @isehsociety.bsky.social annual meeting in Kumamoto! Bringing some new science to share and excited to see friends and try the food!

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 10

It’s just a noncompeting renewal, but I’ve never been so happy.

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

Thank you @keisukeito-lab.bsky.social ! 😍

Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

Aw thanks so much Adam! Let’s talk more about how these mutations affect migration of immune cells across tissues.

Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

A huge thanks to our collaborative team for contributing to this story @eirinipapapetrou.bsky.social Michael Rauh, Samuele Marro, Sidd Jaiswal, @goodell-lab.bsky.social, @micrornax.bsky.social and so many more.

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

Lots of interesting pieces here including how immune cells get into the brain and how often they replace microglia.

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

Human data corroborates a protective effect of TET2 CH against AD

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

This is interesting since Dnmt3a and Tet2 are often lumped together but actually have opposite enzymatic functions.

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

Amazingly, Tet2-mutant marrow protected against AD, whereas Dnmt3a-mutant marrow had no effect.

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

We transplanted 5xFAD mice (a model for AD) with Dnmt3a or Tet2 mutant marrow, the two most common mutations found in age-associated CH

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

We’re interested in infection as a driver of clonal hematopoiesis, and, conversely, how CH affects immune function.

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

What is a pediatric infectious disease doc doing studying AD you might ask?

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jul 2

And here it is! Our study in clonal hematopoiesis and Alzheimer’s disease — product of 5 years’ gestation. urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=htt...

ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.

urldefense.proofpoint.com

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jun 22

We had not one but TWO bottles of bubbly to celebrate paper acceptances in the lab!! Exciting stories forthcoming which I am excited to introduce when they’re online!

Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Jun 2

This post is almost a week late but huge congratulations to the 14 fabulous students who earned their MD PhD degrees last week @bcmhouston.bsky.social @bcm-mstp.bsky.social So amazing to see you all complete this journey. 😍

Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · May 20

Congrats Nick!

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · May 14

Big day for Dr. Brandon Tran yesterday as he became a PhD graduate! Beautiful presentation of rigorous work on conservation of epigenetic marks after infection through myeloid differentiation. 🥳🤩🥳

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · May 11

Congrats @micrornax.bsky.social on this study on let7 in lung injury/repair and thanks for including us as collaborators!

Antony Rod. Lab @micrornax.bsky.social · May 11

(1/n) Our article is out in @natcomms.bsky.social! We set out to examine the contribution of the ancient Let-7 microRNA over alveolar type 2 (AT2) stem cell plasticity in the genesis of pulmonary injury and interstitial lung disease i work led by Matthew and Shafiq in my lab.
Paper: rdcu.be/elun3

Let-7 restrains an epigenetic circuit in AT2 cells to prevent fibrogenic intermediates in pulmonary fibrosis

Nature Communications - Loss of let-7, a key microRNA, causes lung alveolar stem cells to grow abnormally and dieprematurely, leading to scarring and lung damage. Here the study links let-7 loss to...

rdcu.be

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · May 3

Here’s the group shot!

Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · May 3

Perfect weather for our “annual” King lab crawfish boil— so fun to see current lab, alums, and lab babies! 😍

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Katherine King MD PhD @thekinglab.bsky.social · Apr 28

Congrats Dan on this cool study!

Kate MacNamara @macnamaralab.bsky.social · Apr 28

Super interesting- aging and altered intestinal barrier function results in circulation of bacterial metabolites that drive clonal hematopoiesis. #Hematopoiesis #Blood #Aging

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Microbial metabolite drives ageing-related clonal haematopoiesis via ALPK1 - Nature

ADP-heptose binds to ALPK1, triggering transcriptional reprogramming and NF-κB activation, endowing pre-leukaemic cells with a competitive advantage due to excessive clonal proliferation.