GeneTex
Events
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Webinar - RNA vaccines against emerging viruses
Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Speaker: Justin M. Richner, Ph.D.
Viral pandemics in modern times were associated primarily with specific strains of influenza until SARS-CoV-2 arose. Nevertheless, other RNA viruses like SARS-CoV, MERS, and ZIKV have all evoked illness, fear, and death within the last two decades, while DENV and other flaviviruses have caused misery over a much longer timeframe. The Richner laboratory at the University of Illinois, Chicago College of Medicine studies the biology of these pathogens and dissects the underlying signaling, cytokine, and cellular interplay responsible for generating an effective adaptive immune response and immunologic memory following viral infection or vaccination. Other major areas of focus include understanding the biological basis of age-related diminution of the immune response and application of mRNA vaccine technology against flaviviruses and coronaviruses. His webinar will concentrate primarily on his compelling findings related to mRNA vaccines against ZIKV and DENV as well as his quest to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine. -
Webinar - Neuroinflammation and Neurodegenerative Disease
Thursday, February 24, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. (CET)
Speaker: Chun-Cheih Chao, Ph.D.
Astrocytes are a functionally diverse cell population that exerts a complex range of effects on neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). These include actions both supportive to neuron homeostasis (i.e., release of lactate and promotion of post-traumatic tissue repair) as well as destructive (i.e., driving CNS inflammation and neurodegeneration). These negative processes can involve multiple mechanisms including neurotoxicity, modulation of microglial responses, and recruitment of inflammatory cells. Using a combination of proteomic, metabolomic, transcriptomic, and perturbation approaches, Dr. Chun-Cheih Chao found that sphingolipid metabolism in astrocytes trigger the interaction of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) with mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS). This stimulates NF-κB-driven transcriptional programs leading to CNS inflammation and disruption of MAVS-hexokinase 2 (HK2) interactions that result in decreased lactate production and compromised neuronal metabolism. Dr. Chao will describe how this sequence of events can be pharmacologically targeted to treat neuroinflammation. -
Webinar - From Skin to Brain: The Epigenetic Basis of Inflammatory Training
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. (EST)
Speaker: Samantha Larsen, Ph.D.
Inflammatory training is the generation of an epigenetic memory that leads to an augmented state of responsiveness to a broad range of secondary stimuli. Though previously thought to be exclusive to the innate immune system, Dr. Samantha Larsen discovered that epithelial stem cells can undergo inflammatory training that accelerates tissue repair. She revealed this phenomenon hinges on the coordinated efforts of stimulus-specific, stress-responsive, and homeostatic transcription factors that extend to diverse stimuli, cell types, and species. She has now extended her interests in the long-term consequences of inflammation to the brain, where she has identified that neurons, much like other long-lived cell types, undergo inflammatory training that may predispose them to subsequent neurodegeneration. Moving forward, she is addressing the persistent transcriptional and electrophysiological changes that follow concussive brain injury with the ultimate goal of treating and preventing injury-induced neuropathogenesis. -
Webinar - 新型コロナウイルスの進化 ～これまでとこれから～
2021年11月5日(金), 11:00 a.m.
Speaker: 佐藤 佳 准教授
2019年末に突如出現した新型コロナウイルスは、瞬く間に全世界に広がった。これまで、全世界において2億人以上が新型コロナウイルスに感染し、450万人以上が新型コロナウイルス感染症COVID-19によって死亡している。未曾有の新型コロナウイルスパンデミックは、発生から約2年あまりが経過した現在においても、リアルタイムの災禍であり、いまだ収束の兆しは見えない。
演者は、新型コロナウイルスの発生当初からこれまで、そのウイルス学的な性状の理解に向けたシステムウイルス学研究を展開してきた。本講演では、新型コロナウイルスについて、これまでの研究からわかってきたことを概説するとともに、これからの研究と流行の展望について広く議論したい。
