Infection and autoimmune diseases : understanding and treating for a better future
SPEAKERS
PhD. Mathias LAVIE-RICHARD (INRAE, Jouy-en-Josas, France)
Since 2014, he has been responsible for the fungal microbiota group in Harry Sokol's group (INRAE UMR1319 jouy en josas) to improve our understanding of the role of this sub-population of the intestinal microbiota in health and various pathologies including inflammatory bowel disease.
Based on data from the cohorts collected by H. Sokol at the Saint Antoine hospital as well as in vitro or in vivo experiments on conventional mice or axenic mice, he developed different projects to decipher the various mechanisms involved during colonization by the fungi of the the gastrointestinal tract as well as their role in inflammatory diseases.
Pr. Didier HOBER (UPRES EA3610, Lille, France)
Didier Hober is a professor of virology at Medical School University of Lille and director of Laboratoire de Virologie ULR3610 University of Lille and CHU of Lille.
Didier Hober has been involved for more than 20 years in research about the role of enteroviruses in type 1 diabetes.
He is also head of the Department of Virology CHU of Lille.
PhD, Assistant Professor Marvin VAN LUIJN (Department of Immunology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
The main aim of his group is to understand how genetic and environmental risk factors such as EBV infection trigger pathogenic B and T cells to infiltrate and cause local pathology in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).
He is particularly interested in which factors drive lymphocytes to infiltrate and cause inflammation in the human brain. Research areas of expertise are T cells, B cells, HLA class II, Epstein-Barr virus, functional immunogenetics, biomarkers, multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica. His overall aim is to unravel the functional programs of tissue-infiltrating subsets and utilize this knowledge to better predict and treat human diseases. He currently supervises the Neuroimmunology Brain workgroup as part of Multiple Sclerosis Center ErasMS.
Specialties: ex vivo blood and tissue analysis, multicolor flow cytometry, cell sorting, in vitro modulation, priming, skewing, transmigration.
Pr.Jean ROUDIER (INSERM UMRs 1097, Marseille, France)
Professor of Rheumatology at University Aix Marseille and head of the INSERM UMRs1097 laboratory, "autoimmune arthritis", on the Luminy campus in Marseille, Jean Roudier studies mechanisms leading to autoimmune arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Considered as a world expert in this field, Prof. Roudier explores the association between HLA-DR alleles and the development of autoantibodies with his team since more than 20 years.
Among all his works, he had sought to analyse the association between EBV infection and the development of RA.
PhD. Florence VELGE_ROUSSEL(UMR/CNRS 7292 GICC, Tours, France)
Florence Velge-Roussel currently works at the GICC, team FRAME University of Tours. She does research in Cell Biology, Human Biology and Immunology. Their current project is modulation of immune response with therapeutic antibodies directed against Dendritic cells.
The GICC is based on an interdisciplinary approach bringing together molecular biologists and geneticists, hematologists, immunologists, pharmacologists, chemists and clinicians.
The laboratory studies the physiopathological mechanisms of certain cancerous (leukemia, gliomas, digestive cancers), inflammatory and immunological diseases, in order to develop new therapies and to personalize them
Pr. Benjamin PARIENTE (CHRU/Inserm 995, Université Lille-II, Lille, France)
Benjamin Pariente (MCU-PH) works in the department of digestive tract diseases at Claude-Huriez Hospital and in the Inserm 995 " Lille Inflammation Research International Center (LIRIC)" unit of the University of Lille-II (FRANCE) directed by Pierre DESREUMAUX, where he is co-director of the group of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).
These research projects are part of a clinical and fundamental activity centered on IBD.
His clinical research activity (CHRU,Lille) focuses on the identification of factors predictive of adverse outcomes in IBD patients and the management of refractory diseases. At the fundamental level, he is a member of the Inserm 995 team 1 "Inflammatory digestive diseases: pathophysiology and therapeutic targets development", whose research project is focused on inflammatory digestive diseases such as Crohn's disease. Through the characterization of disturbances in the effector mechanisms of intestinal mucosal immunity, the immunopathological determinants of the occurrence of inflammatory colitis and post-operative recurrence of Crohn's disease, and the role of the E. coli pathogen group (associated with Crohn's disease).
The main objectives of the team's work are the identification of new therapeutic targets and the development of innovative therapeutic and diagnostic approaches.
During the conference, Benjamin Pariente will talk about this work on Ustekinumab for Crohn's disease.
MD. Chantal MATHIEU (Chair of Endocrinology, LeuvenKatholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)
Chantal Mathieu is Professor of Medicine and Program Director of Biomedical Sciences at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. She is Chair of Endocrinology at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg Leuven. Prof. Mathieu received her medical degree and PhD at the University of Leuven, where she subsequently completed training in internal medicine and endocrinology. Prof.
Mathieu’s clinical areas of interest include the organization of diabetes care, and she is involved in several clinical trials in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Her basic research is focused on the prevention of type 1 diabetes, effects of vitamin D on the immune system and diabetes, and functioning of the insulin-producing beta cell. Prof. Mathieu has authored or co-authored more than 330 peer-reviewed publications in international journals.
She is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications and is a past associate editor and advisory board member of Diabetologia. In 2013, Prof. Mathieu received the prestigious InBev-Baillet Latour Prize for Clinical Research for her pioneering research on the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes.