Regulation of lung immune-epithelial networks sensing environmental change. This study aims to uncover how lung epithelial cells engage with immune cells and determine their cellular and molecular wiring to ensure homeostatic maintenance and essential repair processes of lung tissues. Maintenance of lung epithelial-immune networks is essential to maintain normal lung tissue structure and function, and to induce immune responses to protect against microbial challenges or inhaled potentially toxic ....Regulation of lung immune-epithelial networks sensing environmental change. This study aims to uncover how lung epithelial cells engage with immune cells and determine their cellular and molecular wiring to ensure homeostatic maintenance and essential repair processes of lung tissues. Maintenance of lung epithelial-immune networks is essential to maintain normal lung tissue structure and function, and to induce immune responses to protect against microbial challenges or inhaled potentially toxic substances. Understanding this molecular program of epithelial-immune cell-mediated sensing/repair will be essential to understand how tissue-repair processes can be driven in the lung, an organ critical for respiration and thus life.Read moreRead less
Mitochondria as sensors of environmental threats. This project aims to understand how energy-generating mitochondria control immune responses, both in immune cells called macrophages and in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (a free-living roundworm used as a model organism to study gene function and evolutionary biology). The project expects to advance knowledge of how a process called mitochondrial fission enables cells to respond to environmental threats. Expected outcomes include important ....Mitochondria as sensors of environmental threats. This project aims to understand how energy-generating mitochondria control immune responses, both in immune cells called macrophages and in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (a free-living roundworm used as a model organism to study gene function and evolutionary biology). The project expects to advance knowledge of how a process called mitochondrial fission enables cells to respond to environmental threats. Expected outcomes include important conceptual advances in cell biology and genetics, new international and national collaborations, and improved methods for cell biology research. Anticipated benefits include a knowledge base that can be indirectly applied in the long term in the development of new strategies to combat infections.Read moreRead less