Sophie Ugolini
Sophie Ugolini is a research director at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and the head of the Neural Regulation of Immunity laboratory at the Marseille-Luminy Immunology Centre (CIML), France. Her principal research goal is to understand how innate and adaptive immune responses are regulated to establish potent antimicrobial and antitumor defense without inducing excessive inflammation and auto-immunity. She has used natural killer (NK) cells as a cell model for studying the mechanisms of immune tolerance and responsiveness from the molecular to the cellular and systemic levels. Her team has analysed the mechanisms of immune defense in various infectious and cancer models, in both humans and mice, by genetic and functional approaches.
More recently, she has been exploring the interactions between the nervous and immune systems. In particular, her laboratory has identified novel neuroimmune pathways playing a crucial role in the regulation of infectious diseases, inflammation and tissue repair. Among other distinctions, Sophie Ugolini received an European Research Council (ERC) award, the “Duquesne award” from the Ligue nationale contre le cancer, the “Research award” from INSERM and the “Dandrimont-Bénicourt award” from the Institut de France.
Read more here: http://www.ciml.univ-mrs.fr/science/lab-sophie-ugolini/innate-lymphoid-cells-and-neural-regulation-immunity
PRESENTATION SUMMARY
Neural regulation of immunity
The survival of living organisms depends on their capacity to develop mechanisms of defense against environmental challenges causing tissue damage and infections. These protective functions involve both the immune and nervous systems, which have traditionally been considered independent. However, the nervous system has recently been shown to regulate immune functions. Pain is one of the major signs of inflammation. Following injury or infection, inflammatory mediators activate nociceptive sensory neurons in tissues. These neurons transmit the signal to the brain, eliciting pain. They also release a number of mediators directly at the site of injury, modulating local immune responses. We recently demonstrated a key role for subsets of sensory neurons in limiting inflammation and promoting macrophage tissue-repair functions in the skin. The sensory nervous system also regulates the adaptive immune response to Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection. We are exploring the molecular and cellular basis of these neuro-immune regulations and the potential therapeutic value of our findings for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.