About the Workshop
The innate immune system constitutes the first line of defense against pathogenic intruders and serves vital functions in maintaining tissue homeostasis. Sensors of the inflammasome family play a key role in guarding cellular integrity against various types of insults. Upon engagement, inflammasomes orchestrate the activation of pro-inflammatory cytokines of the IL-1 cytokine family as well as the induction of pyroptosis, a programmed from of cell death. A fascinating aspect of inflammasome biology is that receptor activation goes beyond the classical paradigm of pattern recognition, as various inflammasome receptors have evolved to sense the perturbation of cellular homeostasis rather than specific molecular patterns. This also explains why inflammasomes not only play a crucial role in the control of microbial infection, but also in the context of many sterile inflammatory conditions, in which cellular integrity is perturbed by endogenous damage (e.g. atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease). The objective of this EMBO Workshop is to bring together both established and junior researchers in this rapidly evolving research field to share and discuss their latest work. Sessions will cover topics ranging from molecular mechanisms of inflammasome activation over disease models up to therapeutic applications.
About EMBO Courses and Workshops
EMBO Courses and Workshops are selected for their excellent scientific quality and timelines, provision of good networking activities for all participants and speaker gender diversity (at least 40% of speakers must be from the underrepresented gender).
Organisers are encouraged to implement measures to make the meeting environmentally more sustainable.
