Séance solennelle de remise des insignes de Doctorat Honoris Causa 2022
March 08th 2022 - 11:01
Séance solennelle de remise des insignes de Doctorat Honoris Causa à Madame Katalin Karikó professeure à l’Université de Pennsylvanie et figure majeure de la vaccination, pour ses recherches innovantes en thérapie génique basée sur l’ARN messager.
Type 2 Immunity in Early Life 9 & 10 May 2022, Liege, Belgium
January 07th 2022 - 11:50
Gestation through to weaning from our mothers is considered to be a time when immune systems show a bias to Type 2 immunity. The significance of this for mothers and offspring health during pregnancy, nursing and in later life is being recognised as being a key determinant of both positive and negative, short and long term health trajectories.
In this meeting we will present some of the latest insights into how this early life immune status influences important health scenarios and how these effects may be extended into later life once direct maternal offspring interactions have been...
New publication on the role of ACOD1 in Brucella infection
September 16th 2021 - 14:36
In this article published in PLOS Pathogens, Aurore Demars from the group of Eric Muraille explores the role of aconitate decarboxylase 1 gene (Acod1; also known as Immune responsive gene 1) in the control of pulmonary Brucella infection in mouse. They observe that Acod1 is upregulated in murine alveolar macrophages in response to Brucella infection and that Acod1 deficient mice display a higher bacterial load in their lungs than control mice, demonstrating that Acod1 participates in the control of pulmonary Brucella infection. The ACOD1 enzyme is mostly produced in mitochondria of...
CIVIS course: Technical innovations in basic and translational research: Applications to Immunology-Oncology (IO)
September 14th 2021 - 11:39
The Institute of Cancer and Immunology (ICI) offers to Master and PhD students the opportunity to follow a mixed international mobility program on the theme of "Technical innovations in basic and translational research: Applications to Immunology-Oncology (IO)" within the universities of the CIVIS alliance. Both virtual mobility in the form of e-learning (webinars and videos) and 5-days physical mobility in high-tech scientific platforms, will allow students to discover or to deepen their skills in Immuno-Oncology. REGISTRATION closed on September 30!
2021 is the year of the 100th anniversary of the first administration of the Bacillus Calmette - Guérin (BCG) to a human being. It was the start of a long journey of the world’s most widely used vaccine and is today the oldest vaccine still in use. As of today, more than 4 billion children have been vaccinated with BCG to protect them against tuberculosis. However, over the years it became apparent that BCG has also interesting non-specific effects. As such, it is able to provide protection against various heterologous infectious and non-infectious diseases and is widely used to treat...
Save the date: Keystone (Virtual) Symposium on Maternal-Fetal Newborn Immunity: October 28-29
September 06th 2021 - 10:21
Worldwide, deaths from adverse pregnancy outcomes of preterm birth (PTB) and stillbirth (SB) represent the longest, deadliest pandemic in human history. Neonatal infection (e.g. sepsis) is the main cause of death for children under 5 years; with premature babies being especially susceptible to infection. While the final common pathway for SB, PTB and neonatal sepsis is associated with aberrant inflammation in the maternal-fetal dyad, lack of insight into the underlying mechanisms has hampered identification of effective upstream preventative or downstream therapeutic interventions. A focus on...
New Pre-print: Functional reprogramming of monocytes in acute and convalescent severe COVID-19 patients
August 20th 2021 - 11:18
Considerable advances have been made in the last months in understanding the contribution of the immune system to the pathology induced by SARS-CoV2. Here, Elisa BRAUNS from the group of Stanislas Goriely assessed the short and long-term impact of the infection on the function and the molecular features of circulating monocytes. They demonstrate that severe infection is associated with major alterations of the capacity of monocytes to produce cytokines in response to stimulation by various TLR ligands. However, this immune paralysis was not persistent as it was followed in the next months by...
New publication on the role of T follicular helper cells in breast cancer
August 20th 2021 - 11:02
In this article published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the group of Karen Willard-Gallo explores the mechanisms leading to the formation of active Tertiary Lymphoid Structures (TLS) in breast cancer. Analysis of active versus inactive TLS in untreated patients revealed that the former are associated with positive clinical outcomes. They explore the role of tumor-infiltrating Follicular Helper (Tfh) and Regulatory T cells (Tfr) in this process and show that these cells represent a potential key target of PD1/PDL1 blockade.
New article on the response of residents from nursing homes to Sars-Cov2 mRNA vaccine published in Clinical Infectious disease
June 17th 2021 - 12:28
En septembre 2020 était lancée l’étude PICOV dans 26 centres de soins pour personnes âgées en Belgique. L’objectif de cette étude était de déterminer dans quelle mesure les personnes, personnel et résidents, ayant été préalablement infectées par SARS-CoV-2 étaient protégées de nouvelles infections. Après le début de la campagne de vaccination en janvier 2021, une deuxième question importante a été ajoutée au projet, à savoir si la réponse immunitaire au vaccin COVID-19 était différente chez les personnes préalablement infectées par SARS-CoV-2 par rapport aux...
1st Summer School in Immuno-Oncology organized by the Institut Cancer et Immunologie (ICI) and CIVIS
February 11th 2021 - 11:38
The ICI Summer School, edition 2021, all in English, is designed for international PhD and master’s students in life sciences, medicine, and computer science who are seeking to further their knowledge and skills in immuno-oncology research using the latest analytical methods. The Summer School will present recent technological breakthroughs that unravel the complexities of biological systems at the single-cell level, opening an avenue for the understanding of tumor and immune cell heterogeneity and next generation discovery of biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
