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SUMMARY:Regulation of Tissue Homeostasis and Inflammation by Cell-Cell and
  Cell-Environment Interactions
DTSTART:20260121T121500
DTEND:20260121T133000
DTSTAMP:20260428T232818Z
UID:58d4da4e1179a3d7a6dc975161f346783120ce540cd582f4e8f55d10
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Xu Zhou\, Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s
  Hospital\, Boston\, MA (USA)\nBIOENGINEERING SEMINAR\n \nAbstract:\nInfl
 ammatory response is essential for defending tissue and organ integrity. W
 hen hosts encounter challenge of tissue homeostasis\, such as infections o
 r injuries\, an inflammatory response is activated by the innate sensors r
 ecognizing cues associated with pathogens or tissue damage. These inflamma
 tory triggers activate production of cytokines\, chemokines and additional
  immune signals to mount host defense and tissue repair programs. A proper
  and successful inflammatory response restore tissue homeostasis. However\
 , in excessive\, inflammatory responses are known causes for significant t
 issue damage. Much of our knowledge in inflammation relates to the initiat
 ion of inflammatory responses and the impact on organs functions. By contr
 ast\, little is known of how state of a given tissue impacts the inflammat
 ory response. My research program is focused on the emerging concept that 
 the non-immune compartment of tissues actively modulates the inflammatory 
 response. This concept is formulated based on two premises. First\, the im
 mune system never exists alone. in tissues\, immune cells perform both hom
 eostatic and defense functions in service of other cell types so the tissu
 es can support organismal survival. Thus\, the specific demands need to be
  communicated to the immune cells. Second\, the critical balance between t
 he beneficial and pathological impacts of inflammatory response demands it
  to be adjusted based on both the presence of inflammatory triggers and th
 e extent of pathological outcome. Sensing deviation in tissue microenviron
 ment by the immune system may provide such balancing mechanism.\n\nMy lab 
 focuses on two major research areas: immune-stromal interactions and Immun
 e-environment interactions. First\, we aim to understand the molecular\, c
 ellular and functional bases of the interactions between immune and stroma
 l cells to characterize governing principle of immune organization at tiss
 ue homeostasis and inflammation. Second\, we are interested in discovering
  novel strategies for immune systems to sense\, respond to and adapt to pe
 rturbation in pH environment\, and design syntenic modules to control envi
 ronment-dependent immunity.\n\nBio:\nXu Zhou is a Principal Investigator i
 n the Division of Gastroenterology\, Hepatology\, and Nutrition at Boston 
 Children’s Hospital\, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Me
 dical School\, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and H
 arvard. He grew up in Beijing\, China\, and received his B.S. from Peking 
 University. He then earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Molecular and Ce
 llular Biology at Harvard University with Dr. Erin O’Shea\, where his wo
 rk focused on systems biology and transcriptional regulation.\n\nXu comple
 ted his postdoctoral training with Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov in the Department 
 of Immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine\, where he studied 
 the mechanisms governing tissue homeostasis and inflammation\, with partic
 ular emphasis on macrophages and fibroblasts.\n\nSince establishing his la
 b in 2021\, the Zhou Lab has been interested in understanding how immune c
 ells sense and integrate signals from neighboring cells and the local tiss
 ue environment to regulate homeostasis and inflammatory responses. Current
  research directions include macrophage-stromal cell interactions and mech
 anisms by which the immune system detects and responds to pH within and ar
 ound cells.\n\n\nZoom link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom.us/j
 /63042357787\n\n\nInstructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to att
 end this talk\, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:\
 nIN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room\, please make sure to\n\n
 	send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day)\,
  informing that you plan to attend the talk online\, and\, during seminar:
 \n	be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias makin
 g it difficult or impossible to identify you).\n\nStudents attending the s
 eminar in-person should collect a confirmation signature after the talk - 
 please print your own signature sheet beforehand (69 kB pdf available for 
 download here). IMPORTANTLY: hang on to this sheet as no signature record 
 is being kept by anyone else!
LOCATION:MXF 1 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MXF%201 https://epfl.zoom.us/j/
 63042357787
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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