New Insights into Lymphatic Vessel Immune and Drainage Function

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Date 24.06.2013
Hour 12:15
Speaker Prof. Cornelia Halin Winter, ETHZ
Bio: Cornelia Halin Winter, born on 4th of October 1974 in Zurich, Switzerland, studied biochemistry at ETH Zurich (1993 – 1998). After obtaining her diploma, she spent 6 months working as an intern in the Department of Molecular Oncology at Genentech Inc., San Francisco, USA. From 1999 – 2002 she performed her PhD thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Dario Neri at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of ETH Zurich, working on immunocytokines and targeted tumor therapy. Her dissertation was awarded the ETH Zurich Silver Medal. From 2002 -2005, Cornelia Halin Winter performed a post-doc in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Ulrich von Andrian at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, working in the field of leukocyte trafficking. In 2005 she returned to the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of ETH Zurich to work as a post-doc and group leader in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Michael Detmar in the field of lymphatic vessel biology. In June 2008 she received an appointment as Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on leukocyte migration and vascular biology in the context of inflammation and tumor growth. Since September 2011 Cornelia Halin Winter is a consultant for Philochem AG (Zurich, Switzerland) in the field of immunocytokines.
Location
Category Conferences - Seminars
Lymphatic Vessels (LVs) are important for fluid drainage and also fulfill essential immune functions by transporting leukocytes and lymph-borne antigen to draining lymph nodes (dLNs). Particularly dendritic cell (DC) migration via afferent lymphatic vessels to draining lymph nodes (dLNs) is an important step in the induction of adaptive immunity, but the interactions between DCs and lymphatic vessels are only now starting to be unraveled at the cellular level. Our group has recently established a new intravital microscopy (IVM) model to image DC migration in the ear skin of transgenic mice with red fluorescent LVs. These experiments have revealed that DCs actively migrate within initial lymphatic capillaries and appear to only be propagated by lymph once they reach larger collecting vessels. In the first part of my presentation I will introduce our IVM model and report on the identification of first molecules that determine the velocity and directionality of intralymphatic DC migration. In the second part of my presentation, I will talk about the role of interleukin-7 (IL-7) in lymphatic vessel biology. IL-7 is an immune-stimulatory cytokine, which currently is in clinical development for the treatment of cancer and viral infections. We have recently observed that lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) in the skin and in LNs not only produce IL-7 but also express the IL-7 receptor chains. Experiments in different mouse models have revealed an unexpected new role of IL-7 in supporting lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic drainage, indicating that IL-7 contributes to immune function by supporting the lymphatic vascular system.

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  • Informed public
  • Free
  • This event is internal

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lymphatic vessels adaptive immunity intravital microscopy interleukin-7

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