On March 5th we have another talk in the new series on “Heterogeneity in Biological Systems” in the framework of our IRI-Colloquium: Roi Avraham from the Weizmann Institute of Science (http://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biological_Regulation/avraham/avraham-lab-homepage) will give a talk on “Predicting human infection outcome using single cell RNA-seq of blood immune cells“.
Date: March 5th
Time: 4 p.m.
Venue: IRI Life Sciences
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Philippstr. 13
Michaelis Building (No 18)
Maud Menten Hall (3rd Floor)
https://goo.gl/maps/9LUWXKXj6pv
Abstract:
Management of many bacterial infections is becoming increasingly difficult due to new and rapidly evolving pathogens with increased virulence and drug resistance. Promising alternative approaches to targeting pathogens are to harness the host’s own response to infection or to target virulent processes of the pathogen. To realize these intriguing alternatives, a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the complex dynamics between host and pathogen is required. Using a powerful combination of cutting-edge single cell genetic and genomic approaches, we wish to address what forms the basis for successful immune clearance, from the level of individual infected cells to that of the whole organism, and why, in some cases, sterilization is incomplete?
In this talk, I will demonstrate our approach that applies single cell analysis of models of infection of cultured blood immune cells with different pathogens and of human patient samples. We elucidate the complexity of the human immune system in health and disease, to understand what are the important determinant for successful control of infection. This approach allowed us to identify cell-type specific activation biomarkers that can predict risk to infectious diseases, and also provide indications to changes in immune correlates at very easy stages of infection.