Inflammasomes complexes in anti-microbial immunity
The innate immune system provides the first line of defense against infections by rapidly recognizing and eliminating invading microbes. An important component of innate immunity are pattern recognition receptors, which are sensors that constantly monitor the extracellular and intracellular space of host cells for molecules of bacterial origin. Once the presence of bacteria is detected, these sensors initiate an inflammatory response. A subset of these pattern recognition receptors initiates the assembly of cytosolic multi-protein complexes called inflammasomes. The inflammasome complex is a large filamentous assembly formed by progressive oligomerization of receptors and adaptor proteins and serves as an activation platform for inflammatory caspases, a group of cysteine proteases. The prototypic caspase activated by canonical inflammasomes in caspase-1, which control the release of cytokines like IL-1b. Uncontrolled activation of the inflammasome by gain-of-function mutations or sterile inflammatory triggers is an underlying cause of many (auto-) inflammatory diseases. By characterizing new players and regulatory mechanism that control complex assembly and downstream signaling, we aim at identifying new targets for therapeutic modulation of inflammasome activity.
Date: 30 September 2019, 12:00 (Monday, -1st week, Michaelmas 2019)
Venue: Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Headington OX3 7FY
Venue Details: Bernard Sunley Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Professor Petr Broz ( Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
Organising department: Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS)
Organiser: Jennifer Pope (Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology)
Organiser contact email address: jennifer.pope@kennedy.ox.ac.uk
Host: Dr Jelena Bezbradica (The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology)
Part of: Kennedy Institute Seminars
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Jennifer Pope