Pulmonary immunity
Among respiratory diseases, allergic asthma and pulmonary infections represent major problems of public health. These diseases affect millions of people, are in constant increase and are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Although considerable therapeutic progress has been made over the last 20 years, there is still no treatment able to modify the natural course of chronic respiratory diseases. These diseases share common key target cells involved in their pathogenesis: the endothelial cells (EC) as a barrier allowing the recruitment of inflammatory cells in the tissues, and the lymphoïd cells, as major actors of the immune response to environmental challenges. Our goal is to evaluate how these cells and their mediators can orchestrate the host inflammatory reaction and tissue remodeling in response to allergens, bacteria or stress and to characterize some of the mechanisms involved in the immune response associated with these respiratory diseases in order to highlight potential therapeutic strategies.
The project focus on the mechanisms involved in the regulation of pulmonary immunity by endothelial cells in sepsis and asthma and by lymphoid cells in asthma including T cells and Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILC).
Anne Tsicopoulos graduated as a medical doctor in1985 and as a chest physician in 1988 at Lille University and started her scientific carrier at the Center of Immunology and Biological Parasitology headed by Professor André Capron. Her post doctoral training was devoted to allergic inflammation at the National Heart and Lung Institute in London, in the department headed by Professor A.B. Kay and led to the first description of a Th2 profile in asthma. She has dedicated her scientific carrier to the mechanisms regulating allergic inflammation, with particular interest in immunotherapy, pathogenesis of asthma, role of chemokines in allergic inflammation, and the role of environmental factors in allergic asthma. She got a tenure position of Director of Research at the Inserm (National Institute for Health and Medical Research) in 2002 and heads the department of pulmonary immunity at the Institut Pasteur of Lille since 2010. She has authored over 100 scientific articles in international journals and contributed to 30 chapters and review articles. She has been a visiting professor in Europe, Canada and China. She reviews papers for international journals, is an expert for different French, Canadian and british foundations, and participates to different national expertise committees.
0000-0002-1579-2763
iBALT B cells in a chronic asthma model Airway collagen in a chronic asthma model
0000-0002-6229-2075
