Tissue surveillance by immune sentinels

By : Ana-Maria Lennon (Institut Curie, Paris)

Date : Thursday 07 September 2023

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

Place : Amphi Gustave Roussy

Summary

During my seminar I will describe our recent advances on using cell imaging to understand how dendritic cells and macrophages exert their immunosurveillance function

Biography

Ana-Maria Lennon-Duménil studied Biology at the University of Chile (1989-1993), obtained a Master & PhD in Genetics at the Pasteur Institute (1994-1998) and performed a post-doctoral stage at Harvard University (1999-2002). In 2003, she obtained a permanent research position in France and, in 2004, she created her lab. at Institut Curie, Paris.

Her scientific career has been built on the use of multidisciplinary approaches to understand, at different scales, the functioning of cells in the immune system. In 2008, she set up a consortium including cell biologist M. Piel (I. Curie) and theoretical physicist R. Voituriez (UPMC, Paris). Their goal was to apply quantitative imaging and microfluidics to the study of molecular mechanisms and physical principles governing the ability of cells of the immune system to move. Their work has opened up a still unexplored line of research into the mechanisms that allow dendritic cells, the sentinels of immunity, to coordinate their function (s) with their migration in time and space. They have given rise to more than 25 publications, some of which in very prestigious journals such as Science, Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Physics, Developmental Cell, etc. and the obtaining of several funding, including three projects awarded by the “European Research Council” (Starting, Advanced and Synergy).

Ana-Maria Lennon-Duménil has published >100 referenced scientific articles / journals and obtained two patents. She has received more than 50 invitations to give seminars and conferences in France and abroad, has participated in and / or organized numerous international courses and conferences (> 40), including the prestigious “Keystone, EMBO and Gordon Conferences”.

Over the course of her career, she has obtained several honors, including the Thesis Award of the “French Association for Therapeutic Research” (1998), the Olga Sain Award of the “League against Cancer” (2009), the Gaston Rousseau Award from the Académie des Sciences (2012) and the INSERM Research Award (2018). She was elected member of EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) in 2018.

Ana-Maria Lennon-Duménil became de director of the “Immunity & Cancer” department of Institut Curie in April 2021.

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