Lecture
This Week’s Discoveries | 18 December 2018
- Date
- Tuesday 18 December 2018
- Time
- Location
-
Oort
Niels Bohrweg 2
2333 CA Leiden - Room
- De Sitterzaal
Title
Host immune adaptations to microbial colonization
Speaker
Bjørn Koch (IBL)
Bjørn Koch is a Molecular Biologist in the Animal Sciences & Health cluster at the IBL. In his work he focuses on all aspects of host-microbe interactions, both pathogenic and beneficial. He combines microscopy and genetic approaches to elucidate the molecular basis of host responses to microbial colonization and to dissect the effects of specific microbial species to the health of the host.
Abstract
Every step of vertebrate evolution has occurred in close association with microbes. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that most aspects of vertebrate physiology, including immune regulation, are influenced by interactions with microbes. But the subject is technically challenging to address and the host pathways mediating changes in immune states elicited by intestinal microbial colonization remain incompletely characterized. This talk will explain how zebrafish embryos may be utilized as a convenient model to assess effects of colonizing microbes on the host, and briefly describe the discovery of an unexpected suppressive action on the expression of a component of host immune regulation.