Reinhard Hinterleitner won the Society for Mucosal Immunology Young Investigator Award

Reinhard Hinterleitner, associate professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Immunology, has been selected to receive the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Mucosal Immunology.

Established in 2017, the award honors investigators within 15 years of their postdoctoral experience who have made significant contributions to the field of mucosal immunology.

Hinterleitner’s research focuses on how gut microbiota — including understudied microscopic organisms called protists — shape immune responses in ways that can either promote or protect against disease. His lab has made key insights into how intestinal reovirus infections can break oral tolerance to dietary antigens, triggering celiac disease in mice, and how a commensal protist can protect against virus-induced celiac disease. Another notable finding from his lab was uncovering a novel pathway by which parasitic helminth infections regulate immune responses in the gut.