Dr. Clare Bryant, Professor of Innate Immunity,
The University of Cambridge
Department of Medicine,
Department of Veterinary Medicine
Hill Pavillion, Room 132
Wednesday, June 21, 12pm

 

Inflammasomes are formed in response to both infectious and sterile insults. The in
vitro structural biology of inflammasome formation is increasingly well understood. How
inflammasomes form in cells and the relationship of these inflammatory signalling
complexes to subcellular organelles, a number of which have been implicated in the
activation of NLRP3, is less clear. We have used in cell cryo-eletron tomography to explore this question. Elevated interleukin 1β levels, NLRP3 inflammasome activity and systemic inflammation are hallmarks of metabolic syndrome and western diet models, but the mechanistic basis for this is unclear. We have identified many lipids that were regulated upon NLRP3 activation and that these lipids also regulated inflammasome activity. How inflammasomes influence the innate and adaptive immune response to bacterial infection will also be discussed

Sponsored by: Department of Pathobiology and Institute for Infectious and
Zoonotic Diseases