Recent publication : The mononuclear phagocyte system contributes to fibrosis in posttransplant Obliterans Bronchiolitis
October 09th 2020 - 13:07
Lung transplantation currently represents the only curative treatment for patients suffering from end-stage respiratory failure. However, when compared to other solid-organ transplants, the prognosis after lung transplantation remains quite poor, with a median survival of less than 7 years. The main cause for this high mortality is a disease called Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome (BOS), which manifests as a progressive and irreversible loss of respiratory function, mainly due to the obliteration of the small airways (“bronchioles”) caused by fibrosis. The myofibroblasts, considered as...
A large multicentric study to assess the influence of COVID19 on occurence of acute respiratory infections
October 09th 2020 - 12:19
A large multicenter prospective study in Belgian nursing homes is taking place under the coordination of Sciensano. ULB is a partner of this large initiative.
Caroline La and Maria Pia Di Campli will both very soon publicly defend their thesis to obtain the academic title of PhD in Medical Sciences.
Wednesday, September 9th, at 5:00 p.m. : Caroline will defend her doctoral thesis entitled "Etude des interactions entre la peau, les intestins et les articulations dans un contexte inflammatoire"
Thursday, September 10th, at 5:00 p.m. : Maria Pia will defend her doctoral thesis entitled "Deciphering the role of the mononuclear phagocyte system in post-transplant airway fibrosis"
Modalities of attendance by video-conference will be communicated soon (in...
Collaboration between U-CRI and Dr. Das (University of Pittsburgh) for the analyses of high-dimensional immunological datasets
August 07th 2020 - 08:36
Recently, a collaborative research agreement was signed between U-CRI and the Center for Systems Immunology (CSI) at the University of Pittsburgh. This signing concretizes the continuation of a collaboration that began several years ago between Drs Arnaud Marchant and Jishnu Das.
Dr. Jishnu Das is Assistant Professor at the Departments of Immunology and Computational and Systems Biology and Core Faculty member at the CSI. He has strong expertise in computational systems analyses of immunological data and his research focuses on the development and use of novel machine learning and network...
Recent publication : Defensive weapons for neonates and infants
July 29th 2020 - 15:19
Early-life immune responses have been described as suboptimal, with neonates and infants being susceptible to infections. Vγ9Vδ2 T cells are the first T lymphocytes to be generated in the human fetus. Their T cell receptor-mediated responses to in vitro stimulation and their effector functions at birth are weaker compared with those in adults, possibly reflecting the need for tolerance in utero. However, here we show that upon transition to the prominent microbial exposure early after birth, public fetal-derived Vγ9Vδ2 T cells expand and differentiate into potent cytotoxic effector cells....
Recent review: Vaccination strategies to enhance immunity in neonates
July 17th 2020 - 14:23
Neonates are particularly susceptible to infection. This vulnerability occurs despite their responsiveness to most vaccines. However, current vaccines do not target the pathogens responsible for most of the severe neonatal infections, and the time it takes to induce protective pathogen-specific immunity after vaccination limits protection in the first days to weeks of life. Alternative strategies include using vaccines to broadly stimulate neonatal immunity in a pathogen-agnostic fashion or vaccinating women during pregnancy to induce protective antibodies that are vertically transferred to...
