Mitchell D. Knutson, Ph.D.

Research Interests

Our research focuses on the molecular and cell biology of iron metabolism, with an emphasis on iron metabolism in the macrophage.

Disturbances of iron metabolism are among the most prevalent disorders affecting humans. In the US, approximately 1 in 200 individuals are at genetic risk for developing hemochromatosis, an iron-overload disease, whereas the anemia of chronic disease is the most common form of anemia in hospitalized patients. Both of these disorders are characterized by alterations in macrophage iron metabolism. Macrophages play a central role in iron metabolism by ingesting senescent red blood cells and recycling their iron. Macrophage iron recycling is the largest iron-transport pathway in the body; each day macrophages recycle ~24 mg of iron (i.e., about 20 times more than we need to absorb from our daily diet).

In the past 10 ten years, we have witnessed the discovery of more than a dozen proteins involved in iron metabolism. A challenge in this post-genomic era will be to determine precisely where these proteins are expressed (tissue, cellular, and subcellular localization); how they function; how they are regulated; and how they interact to regulate the fine-tuned balance of whole-body iron homeostasis.

Contact Information

359 Food Science and Human Nutrition Building
P.O. BOX 110370
Newell Drive
University of Florida
Gainesville, Fl 32611-0370
Email: mknutson@ufl.edu