Parasites and their secreted factors: exploiting regulatory mechanisms to shape the host immune response

Special seminar by Louis-Philippe Leroux, PhD, Institut national de la recherche scientifique - Institut Armand-Frappier (INRS-IAF), Québec, Canada. Everyone is invited to attend.

Despite their evolutionary differences, protozoan and metazoan parasites share a common goal: to persist in their hosts. As such, these pathogens have devised ways to subvert host immune responses. The apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii and the helminth Trichuris suis have proven to be useful models to study these biological processes. Our work with these organisms has demonstrated that the modulation of innate immune responses involves complex transcriptional, translational, and posttranslational networks in part influenced by parasite-derived virulence factors. Our studies have unraveled regulatory mechanisms that could help identify common pathways dysregulated during both infections and other diseased states such as autoimmune disorders, and pave the way to novel therapies.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Louis-Philippe Leroux obtained his doctoral degree at the Institute of Parasitology under the supervision of Dr. Florence Dzierszinski. His thesis focused on the dysregulation of MHC-II antigen presentation by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. He undertook his first postdoctoral training in Dr. Armando Jardim's laboratory. Leroux's work focused on the excreted-secreted molecules from Trichuris suis. He then joined Dr. Maritza Jaramillo's laboratory at the INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier to study the role of translational control in the host immune response during parasitic infections.