Integrated insect immunology: controlling infections

Roscoff (Bretagne), France,June 24-28, 2019

Deadline for application : March 15, 2019

Chairperson: George K. Christophides

Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Room 6165, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, Exhibition Road, SW7 2AZ, London, United Kingdom
Phone: +44(0)2075925342
Email: g.christophides@imperial.ac.uk

Vice-chairperson: Jean-Luc Imler

Modèles Insectes d’Immunité Innée (M3I), CNRS UPR9022, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, 15, rue Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg cedex, France
Phone: +33 (0)3 88 41 70 36
Email: jl.imler@ibmc-cnrs.unistra.fr

Insects represent the largest and most successful animal class. Owing it to their high evolutionary plasticity and ecological adaptation, but also to their robust immune systems, they have conquered all corners of the planet, thriving in most known habitats. Consequently, their impact on the environment and human wellbeing is both immense and critical, ranging from being agricultural pests and essential crop pollinators to being essential components of the food chain and contributors to environmental homeostasis to being transmitters of some of the most notorious diseases of both humans and other animals. This conference, the fourth in a series firstly introduced in 2007, aspires to provide a unique forum for networking and dissemination of the most recent and exciting discoveries in the field of insect immunology. The first component of the conference’s compound title encapsulates the fact that immunology as a scientific discipline cannot be effectively studied and understood by a single approach; it is only by combining and integrating the different scales at which immunology is studied that one can derive informed answers to specific and varying questions regarding the nature of the immune response against infections. The second component of the conference’s compound title denotes the focus of the conference and has a dual objective: by reviewing our state-of-the-art understanding of how insects successfully control infections both at the individual and at the population levels, it aims to inform current and reveal new avenues for the control of infectious diseases transmitted by insects. The conference agenda is structured around thematic sessions that cover various state-of-the-art topics in insect immunology in a highly integrated manner. These topics include amongst others: response to infections; insect-microbe interactions; pathogens, symbionts and microbiota; gut immunity and homeostasis; immune response and pathophysiology; ecology, evolution and adaptation; and innovations for human health and wellbeing.

Invited speakers
(provisional titles)

Carolina Barillas-Mury (National Institute of Health, USA)
Mosquito hemocytes, prostaglandins and malaria transmission

Nicole Broderick (University of Connecticut, USA)
Deciphering host-microbiome-pathogen interactions using Drosophila melanogaster

Nicolas Buchon (Cornell University, USA)
Surviving infection: the damage you can give, the damage you can take

George Christophides (Imperial College London, United Kingdom)
Mosquito gene drive for malaria transmission blocking

Michèle Crozatier (Université Toulouse III, France)
Hematopoiesis and immune response in Drosophila

Gabriela de Oliveira Paiva e Silva (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
No gut, no glory: mosquito midgut regeneration as a component of vectorial competence

George Dimopoulos (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
Exploiting the mosquito's immune system to control human diseases

Marc Dionne (Imperial College London, United Kingdom)
Paying the metabolic price of immunity in Drosophila

Dominique Ferrandon (Université de Strasbourg, France)
The yin and the yang of host defense: resilience to infections and to environmental stresses as exemplified in the gut of Drosophila melanogaster

Elke Genersch (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)
A question of strategy: How Paenibacillus larvae bacteria evade the honeybee larval immune response

Angela Giangrande (IGBMC Strasbourg, France)
Breaking news on the hematopoietic waves: cell communication and homeostasis in physiology and pathology

Jean-Luc Imler (Université de Strasbourg, France)
Insects as a source of innovative antiviral strategies

Frank Jiggins (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
The evolution of Drosophila immunity

Alain Kohl (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)
Mosquito antiviral RNAi effector proteins – activity and regulation

Louis Lambrechts (Institut Pasteur Paris, France)
Dissecting the genetic basis of natural variation in mosquito susceptibility to arbovirus infection

Brian Lazzaro (Cornell University, USA)
Host-pathogen interplay determines the outcome of bacterial infection in Drosophila

Bruno Lemaitre (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
Systematic functional analysis of Drosophila antimicrobial response using CRISPR/CAS9 mutants

Elena Levashina (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Germany)
Mosquito immune responses to malaria parasites

Joao Marques (Université de Strasbourg, France)
Functional specialization of antiviral RNA Interference in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Carine Meignin (Université de Strasbourg, France)
Sensing viral RNA by the nucleic acid sensor Dicer-2 in Drosophila melanogaster

Scott O’Neill (Monash University, Australia)
Using Wolbachia endosymbionts to block transmission of viruses by Aedes aegypti

Marylène Poirié (Université Côte d'Azur, France)
Evolution and mechanisms of immune interactions between insect hosts and parasitoid wasps

Julien Royet (Aix-Marseille Université, France)
Modulation of Drosophila innate behaviours by commensal and infectious bacteria

Carla Saleh (Institut Pasteur Paris, France)
Immune priming and clearance of orally acquired RNA viruses in Drosophila

Neal Silverman (University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA)
Adventures in the Imd pathway

Luis Teixeira (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal)
Drosophila bacterial symbionts

Uli Theopold (Stockholm University, Sweden)
Wounds come in different shapes: nematodes and tumors

Ronald van Rij (Radboud University Medical Center, The Netherlands)
Small RNA-based antiviral immunity in insects

Will Wood (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
Detecting death and damage in Drosophila

Anna Zaidman-Remy (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, France)
Fighting infection while maintaining symbiosis homeostasis: the immune split personality of the cereal weevil Sitopilus sp.

Deadline for application : March 15, 2019

Registration fee (including board and lodging)

500 € for PhD students
700 € for other participants

Application for registration
The total number of participants is limited to 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Selection is made on the basis of the affinity of potential participants with the topics of the conference. Scientists and PhD Students interested in the meeting should deposit online before the deadline: https://cjm3-2019.sciencesconf.org

- their curriculum vitae
- the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
- the abstract of their presentation:

The abstract must respect the following template: TemplateResumeFile
- First line: title
- Second line: list of authors. Presenting author underlined
- Third line: author's addresses
- Fourth line: e-mail of the presenting author
Abstracts should be no longer than an A4 page and preferably be submitted in Times New Roman, font size 10 pts. No figures. ".docx" file format.

After the deadline, the organizers will select the participants. Except in some particular cases approved by the Chairperson, it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in- session talk. The organizers choose the form in which the presentations are made. No payment will be sent with application. Information on how and when to pay will be mailed in due time to those selected.