UiO:Life Science and the convergence environment COMPARE invite you to the workshop: Comparative immunology of fish and humans: a transdisciplinary approach.
The workshop brings together researchers from different disciplines within the life sciences, with an overarching theme of immunology in a comparative perspective, primarily between fish and humans. The workshop also includes perspectives from the social sciences, with a focus on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in life science research practices.
Registration for the workshop is required by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.
Programme
0900-0910: Introduction to COMPARE and a transdisciplinary immunological approach
Kjetill S. Jakobsen, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Dept. of Biosciences, University of Oslo
0910-0940: Intracellular immunity
Inger Sandlie, Centre for Immune Regulation, Oslo University Hospital and Dept. of Biosciences, University of Oslo
Inger Sandlie unfortunately had to cancel. Dr. Stian Foss will present in her place.
0940-1010: Evolution of male pregnancy requires remodeling of adaptive immunity
Olivia Roth, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research
1010-1040: Intracellular PAMP recognition drives the immune response in cod
Simon MacKenzie, Aquaculture School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling
1040-1050: Coffee break
1050-1120: Locating and contextualising responsibility in research practices in the life sciences
Maximilian Fochler, Dept. of Science and Technlogy Studies, University of Vienna
1120-1150: Invariant chain and Rab proteins: Roles in intracellular trafficking and beyond
Cinzia Progida, Section for Physiology and Cell Biology, Dept. of Biosciences, University of Oslo
1150-1220: The Atlantic cod immune system analyzed by single cell transcriptomics
Shuo-Wang Qiao, Centre for Immune Regulation, Oslo University Hospital
1220-1300: Lunch and informal discussions
About the speakers
Inger Sandlie: Antibodies are key molecules in defences against pathogens. Although previously thought to provide protection solely in the extracellular environment, recent research has revealed that antibodies also function within infected cells. Sandlie's group aims to elucidate the intra-cellular anti-viral activity of antibodies and how receptors contribute. Certain human antibody isotopes bind a recently characterized intracellular receptor: TRIM21. The group has exciting results demonstrating that the downstream response of TRIM21-virus-antibody interaction differ between isotopes. Sandlie is Professor at the Dept. of Biosciences and Research Group Leader at Oslo University Hospital. She was Deputy Director of the Centre For Immune Regulation 2007-2017. She is co-inventor of numerous patents, co-founder of two biotech companies, and has received awards for scientific innovation.
Inger Sandlie unfortunately had to cancel. Dr. Stian Foss will present in her place. For his doctoral thesis, Foss worked on Fc receptors, their role in transcytosis and protection against viruses. He is currently a postdoc in the lab of Inger Sandlie, continuing his work on Fc receptors.
Olivia Roth: Why males and females exist and how sex roles have evolved belong to the most controversial issues in evolutionary biology. Olivia Roth examines the evolution of male pregnancy in pipefishes and seahorses (syngnathids) by comparing the genetic and immunological adaptations for the unique male pregnancy with female pregnancy evolution. Insights into joint and distinct loss of traits, involving the recruitment of genes with a different original task and the establishment of novel genes, will help to unravel convergent evolution of parental investment and pregnancy. Roth is research group leader at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research. She has an ERC Starting Grant for the project “Male pregnancy–Unravelling the coevolution of parental investment and immune defence”.
Simon MacKenzie: The lack of conventional (vertebrate) immune system in Atlantic cod has puzzled researchers since its discovery in 2011. Throughout his career to date, Simon MacKenzie’s major academic interest has been to explore how immunity has evolved, and more recently, how environmental conditions, and in particular temperature, modulate the plasticity of the immune response at individual and population level. He approaches this with an integrative suite of methods both experimental and theoretical, spanning across the fields of behavioural ecology, cell biology, evolution, genomics and immunity.? He is Professor at the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling. In his talk, he will address how intracellular PAMP recognition drives the immune response in Atlantic cod.
Max Fochler: Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a big research policy buzzword these days, but the ways it is talked about is often very abstract. This makes it hard for researchers to relate their own work and the many ways in which they act responsibly to this wider discourse. Building on ‘Responsible Research and Innovation in Academic Practice’, a joint research platform of the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Social Sciences, Max Fochler will talk about different approaches to locate responsibility in research practices in the life sciences. He is Associate Professor for Science and Knowledge Cultures at the Dept. of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna, and programme director for the master programme Science-Technology-Society. His research focuses on cultures of knowledge production in life sciences and how researchers’ work is motivated, guided and constrained by different value structures and institutional contexts.
Cinzia Progida: The presentation of antigen on MHC class II is the hallmark of adaptive immunity in mammals. MHC class II-associated invariant chain (Ii) is known for its role in antigen presentation by mediating intracellular trafficking of MHC II. However, Ii has additional functions in the regulation of intracellular transport. Cinzia Progida will present evidence that links Ii to Rab proteins, established master regulators of e.g. intracellular trafficking and migration of immune cells. Her group has contributed to the discovery of Rab proteins as regulators of cytoskeleton dynamics. Today, her research focuses on mechanisms used by cells to regulate intracellular trafficking and cell motility and how membrane transport and cytoskeleton work together, important for regulation of key processes like cancer cell transformation or generation of an efficient immune response.
Shuo-Wang Qiao: The revolution in single-cell sorting and transcriptome (and genome) analyses has been driven by advances in biomedicine. Shuo-Wang Qiao is M.D. and Ph.D. and a (until recently) human immunologist working on the role of CD4 T cells in celiac disease patients. In recent years, her lab at the Medical Faculty has set up different platforms of single-cell transcriptome sequencing. Using this powerful technology, the cell function and identity can be delineated at high-throughput fashion without the need of antibody reagents that often are lacking for non-model organisms. She will address how preliminary single-cell transcriptomic results of cod immune cells show distinct transcriptional profiles of the major immune cell subsets, including T cells, B cells, erythrocytes and myeloid cells.
Registration
The University of Oslo and the City of Oslo invite all participants of the Oslo Life Science Conference to attend a reception in Oslo City Hall at 17.30 after the main event of the Oslo Life Science Conference 11 February. Registration for this reception.