Abstract:
The human innate immune system employs germline-encoded sensor proteins to detect pathogen invasions and tissue injury. As these hard-wired sensors cannot adapt to pathogens in real time like those found in the adaptive immune system, they have evolved many ingenious ways to recognize diverse infections and/or cellular perturbations. Understanding the biochemical underpinnings of this versatility has the potential of pharmacologically modulate the immune response. In this talk, Franklin will illustrate how a single human innate immune sensor protein, NLRP1 uses different molecular features to detect harmful bacteria, viruses and toxic chemicals.
Date and Time
09 Apr 2021 @ 16:00 - 09 Apr 2021 @ 17:00
Speaker
Franklin Zhong Lei, Ph.D
Assistant Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Franklin Zhong is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University and a Group Leader at Skin Research Institute of Singapore (SRIS). Asst Prof Zhong earned his PhD in Cancer Biology from Stanford University. He then completed his postdoctoral training at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore in the area of innate immunity and pathogen sensing.
His lab studies the function of the human inflammasome complex as well as the biochemical basis for pathogen sensing in the skin and airway. A special interest of the lab is to identify novel bacterial and viral effector molecules the human innate immune system senses to orchestrate inflammation and/or ensure immune homeostasis