METAPATH · Integrated study of skin resident Memory T cells and dermal mononuclear phagocytes in the fight against PATHogens

"Integrated study of skin resident Memory T cells and dermal mononuclear phagocytes in the fight against PATHogens""Control of pathogen infection requires the generation of a tightly regulated immune response that recognizes the invading pathogen and that limits a potentially harmful host response. Recent work highlighted that resident memory T cells (TRM) form a very potent means of establishing effective immunity against infection. In the skin, I contributed to the extensive characterization of mononuclear phagocytes and unveiled the phenotype and some of the functions of the dermal macrophage subsets as well as the different dendritic cell subsets. In the present proposal, I propose to study the role of those different antigen presenting cells in the generation of TRM cells in the dermis upon a first pathogen encounter and their role in the re-activation of those TRM cells upon a second encounter with the pathogen. Learning the mechanisms by which efficient TRM cells are generated in the dermis will be an important step in the design of rational approaches to achieve the appropriate control of the pathogen at the site of infection.""