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SUMMARY:Dictyostelium as a model phagocyte to study both cell-autonomous a
 nd altruistic defence against (myco)bacteria infection
DTSTART:20200317T121500
DTSTAMP:20260511T060954Z
UID:09cf69e50235d14fcb36916aaa301b6cdf7f8ce5bfcabf2be368139a
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Thierry Soldati\, Department of Biochemistry\, Faculty of Scie
 nce\, University of Geneva\nThe first line of defence against bacterial in
 fections are phagocytic cells of the innate immune system. While multicell
 ular organisms use phagocytosis to kill microbes and initiate a sustained 
 immune response\, phagocytic amoebae internalise bacteria as nutrients\, v
 ia mechanisms of recognition\, signalling and killing that are surprisingl
 y conserved with innate immune phagocytes. Dictyostelium is a social amoeb
 a that feeds by phagocytosis and has ancestral\, highly conserved cell-aut
 onomous defence systems. It is genetically and biochemically tractable and
  has emerged as a powerful and experimentally versatile model to study var
 ious bacterial pathogens. The causative agent of tuberculosis\, Mycobacter
 ium tuberculosis\, infects alveolar macrophages and subverts their bacteri
 cidal pathways that normally protect the lungs from infection. Important a
 spects of mycobacteria pathogenicity and host defences during infection re
 main to be explored. We study the mechanisms of infection by Mycobacterium
  marinum\, a close cousin of M. tuberculosis\, which uses similar virulenc
 e strategies to re-program and proliferate inside macrophages. In particul
 ar\, we use this Dictyostelium/M. marinum model to study the inter-relatio
 nships between host and pathogen in terms of nutritional immunity\, acquis
 ition of metabolites\, interference with the membrane trafficking and cyts
 okeletal processes. Recently\, we have strongly focused on the pathways re
 sponding and repairing bacteria-mediated membrane damages\, manipulation o
 f autophagy and acquisition of lipids from the host. We have also used thi
 s infection model to perform medium-throughput screens for anti-infective 
 compounds with low antibiotic activity that revealed the possibility to de
 velop compounds for host-directed anti-infectious strategies.
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CANCELLED
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