Cursos Internacionais

Cursos Internacionais PPGBB

Os Cursos Internacionais PPGBB têm como objetivo intensificar o desenvolvimento da internacionalização e a excelência da educação no Programa de
Pós-graduação em Biociências e Biotecnologia, e contribuir para o processo de internacionalização da pós-graduação stricto sensu e da ciência, tecnologia e inovação.

In vitro and in vivo systems to study the immune response to pathogens and vaccines: Hepatitis B virus and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin models

Goals

The analysis of the immunological response to different pathogens represents an important tool for understanding the pathogenesis of infections, as well as for the development of vaccines and therapies.

One of the fundamental aspects of the immune response is the recognition of foreign invaders and the development of an immune response. At the cellular level, immune cells can sense pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and start an immune response at the cellular level. Specifically for viral pathogens, cells sense the pathogens using different receptors and initiate the modulation of intrinsic cells factors and pathways (like type I IFN) which present antiviral activity. Understanding the role of these pathways may lead to the development of antiviral strategies, either specific or broadly to multiple viruses.

Additionally, from a systemic point of view one important characteristic of the immune response is the ability of immune cells to migrate to the site of infection, or even to circulate through different immune organs (lymph nodes, spleen and thymus). This property of immune cells is responsible for capturing non-self antigens in the periphery, initiating specific immune responses in immune tissues. Therefore, analyzing how this cell migration occurs in vivo is relevant to understand the dynamics of the immune response to antigens. Furthermore, this knowledge can be useful for the development of more efficient vaccines, or for the treatment of immunological disorders associated with cell migration to inflamed tissues.

For some pathogens these studies are quite limited, due to the handling biosafety level, or the difficulty of cultivating those microorganisms in vitro and/or in vivo. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) represents a classic example of a pathogen in which the in vitro and in vivo cultivation of the agent represents one of the main challenges. Although there is a safe and efficient vaccine for preventing acute and chronic infection with the virus, curing chronically infected patients still represents a key challenge. In vitro and in vivo culture systems for this pathogen, although useful, still have major limitations. Additionally, studies involving the infection/transfection of susceptible cells (HepG2 or Huh7.5 expressing the sodium taurocholate co-transporting peptide, NTCP receptor) have brought some advances, but there are still important limitations. Therefore, the course will focus on in vitro cultivation of HBV on HepG2-NTCP cells and the recently described HBV pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) system to study HBV biology and the antiviral immune response. Also, the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the vaccine against tuberculosis, will be used to study cell migration using protocols that allow cell tracking and enable the understanding of the migration dynamics of different cells in vivo.

Finally, students will have the opportunity to learn about new tools and protocols for studying the immune response against HBV and BCG, which can be adapted to other pathogens of interest.

Applicattions: 08/26 - 09/15/2024

Selection results: 09/16/2024

Organizers:

Vacancies

Twelve PhD/Masters students and Postdoctoral researchers will be accepted in the practical course. #Theoretical lectures are open to all scientific community (there will be no online transmission)

*The Instituto Carlos Chagas, ICC/Fiocruz will fund up to four travel and housing scholarships for Brazilian and/or foreign scientists. Candidates should request and justify this funding in the intention letter.

Selection criteria

Candidates should send a CV and a letter of intention explaining why the participation in the course is relevant for your work. A letter of recommendation from the student supervisor describing the relevance of the course for the candidate career or project should also be sent.

Invited Speakers

Veronika Krmeská
PhD – Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

William M. Scheneider
PhD – Rockefeller University, New York, United States

Yingpu Yu
PhD – Rockefeller University, New York, United States

Lefteris Michailidis
PhD – Emory University, Atlanta, United States

Antonio Gigliotti
PhD – Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Week I

Day 1 (10/28/2024)

9:00-10:30h – Theoretical class I – General aspects of HBV biology

Lefteris Michailidis, PhD – Emory University, Atlanta, USA.

11:00-12:00h – Protocol Discussion I – Virus stock preparation, infection of HepG2-NTCP cells with HBV, and a cell culture system supporting the complete life cycle of HBV

Lefetris Michailidis, PhD – Emory University, Atlanta, USA

13:30-18:00h – Practical class I – Stock preparation, infection of HepG2-NTCP cells with HBV

Lefetris Michailidis, PhD – Emory University, Atlanta, USA

Day 2 (10/29/2024)

9:00-10:30h – Theoretical class II – Primary human hepatocytes as a model to study HBV biology and innate immune responses

Lefteris Michailidis, PhD – Emory University, Atlanta, USA

11:00-12:00h – Protocol Discussion II – Targeted arrayed overexpression and CRISPR KO screens for virus-host interaction studies in the context of HBV infection

Lefteris Michailidis, PhD – Emory University, Atlanta, USA

13:30-18:00h – Practical class II – Targeted arrayed overexpression and CRISPR KO screens for virus-host interaction studies in the context of HBV infection Lefteris Michailidis, PhD – Emory University, Atlanta, USA

Day 3 (10/30/2024)

9:00-10:30h – Theoretical class III – An RNA-based system to study HBV replication and evaluate antivirals