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SUMMARY:Innate immune sensing of DNA through the cGAS-STING pathway
DTSTART:20201216T121500
DTEND:20201216T131500
DTSTAMP:20260916T014036Z
UID:d14933ebcac0b7334854702378d1bd93ef3e3a6bd3c8efb72a614b02
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Andrea Ablasser\, SV / GHI / UPABLASSER\nAbstract\nThe life
  of any organism depends on the ability of its cells to recognize and resp
 ond to pathogenic microbes. To accomplish this vital task cells rely on in
 tricate signaling pathways that couple sensing of pathogen-associated dang
 er signals to the execution of antimicrobial immune responses. The cGAS-(c
 GAMP)-STING signaling pathway is at the core of a highly conserved innate 
 immune strategy that originated in bacteria to protect from phage infectio
 n. In mammals\, the pathway detects intracellular DNA to promote an antivi
 ral and inflammatory state. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the 
 cGAS-STING pathway plays a critical role in regulating a number of (patho-
 )physiological processes that fall outside its traditional function in hos
 t defense. As such\, the cGAS-STING pathway is implicated in a number of i
 nflammatory disease states where homeostasis is compromised and out-of-con
 text self DNA accumulates\, including autoimmunity\, cancer\, and neurodeg
 eneration.\nIn this talk I will present advances in our understanding of t
 he activation and regulation of the cGAS-STING pathway. I will also discus
 s how aberrant cGAS-STING signaling contributes to inflammatory phenotypes
  and highlight opportunities for pharmacologically targeting cGAS-STING pa
 thway activity.\n\nBiosketch\nAndrea Ablasser obtained her MD at the Unive
 rsity of Munich. After her post-doc at the University of Bonn\, she joined
  EPFL as an assistant professor. Her research focuses on mechanisms of inn
 ate immunity. She played a major role in deciphering how cells respond to 
 DNA as a signal of infection via the so-called cGAS-STING pathway - a fund
 amental discovery\, which paved the way for promising new immunotherapies.
  Amongst several distinctions\, Andrea Ablasser is recipient of the Coley 
 Award\, the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Award\, the  National Latsis Prize\, 
 the ACTERIA Prize\, and the Eppendorf Award\, and she was elected member o
 f EMBO. She is the founding scientist of IFM Due\, a biopharmaceutical com
 pany developing cGAS-STING antagonists for the treatment of inflammatory d
 isorders.
LOCATION:https://epfl.zoom.us/j/87603746592
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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