[SCAN] Innate immune microenvironments in disease and therapeutic response

Title: Innate immune microenvironments in disease and therapeutic response

Speaker: Catarina Brito - iBET/ITQB NOVA

From: Advanced Cell Models

Abstract: Our Lab focuses on microenvironment-driven modulation of disease progression and targeted therapy response, through the development and interrogation of in vitro and ex vivo models of the disease. The dynamic and complex crosstalk between target cells and their immune microenvironment modulates physiological functions, pathological processes, and responses to therapy. The difficulties in recapitulating these heterogeneous niches with human cells, in mature functional phenotypes, and without the confounding effects of heterologous extracellular matrices, are a bottleneck in deciphering the cellular crosstalk mechanisms and predicting their effect on therapeutic efficacy. We have been developing 3D co-culture models, employing human induced pluripotent stem cells and other human cells, to address inflammatory neural and hepatic microenvironments and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments. By integrating cell biology, biochemical, imaging, and omics approaches, we are employing these models to decipher the early tissue response to advanced therapeutics.