Immunity, inflammation and bacterial virulence
Heads of the team
Dr. Mai Nguyen-Chi & Dr. Laure Yatime
Research interests
Vertebrates are constantly subjected to threats arising from their living environment. To survive, they have evolved a highly complex immune system that can recognize a myriad of danger signals issued upon invasion by foreign organisms or produced endogenously during the onset of a pathology. While the immune system is instrumental to eliminate these threats, an exacerbated immune response can lead to excessive inflammation, tissue damage and eventually diseases.
Understanding how the cellular and molecular effectors of the immune system recognize these threats, how immune cells are reprogrammed to efficiently fight the danger, and how this fighting may be controlled not to harm the host, are the major questions our team tries to address. To meet these challenges, our team has set up a multi-scale approach, ranging from studies at the molecular level based on biochemical and structural methodologies, to investigations in a whole organism, the zebrafish, using live imaging.
The team is currently composed of 5 research groups:
- Group 1 – Immune cell activation (PI Mai Nguyen-Chi)
- Group 2 – Danger signals and chronic inflammation (PI Laure Yatime)
- Group 3 – Antibacterial defenses and inflammation during cystic fibrosis (PI Audrey Bernut)
- Group 4 – Mechanisms of bacterial intramacrophage survival and anti-virulence strategies (PI Anne Blanc-Potard)
- Group 5 – Cellular communication in the hematopoietic niche (PI Etienne Lelièvre)
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