Insect models for infection biology

Chairperson: Jean-Luc Imler
Insect Models of Innate Immunity (M3i), CNRS UPR9022Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2 Allée Konrad Roentgen, 67084 Strasbourg, France
Phone: +33 (0)3 88 41 70 37
Email: jl.imler@ibmc-cnrs.unistra.fr

Vice-chairperson: : Elena Levashina
Vector Biology Unit, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin 10117, Germany
Phone: +49 30 284 60 223
Email: levashina@mpiib-berlin.mpg.de

Insects are by far the evolutionary most diverged taxon with respect to the number of species and their ecology: more than one million species of insects have been identified but the estimated diversity of the group is believed to be five to ten times higher. Having colonized all biotopes on Earth apart from the oceans, insects are exposed to the same diversity of infectious microorganisms as other animals, and their evolutionary success attest that they can fight efficiently these infections. This makes them relevant models to investigate a set of topics related to infection biology. The 2023 conference will emphasize the diversity of insects, with the aim to illustrate how they can be used to gain insight on different facets of infection biology. The increase in the number of sequenced genomes, illustrated for example by the i5K initiative, which aims to sequence the genome of 5000 arthropods, and the possibility to efficiently silence gene expression by RNA interference or to modify genes by CRISPR/Cas9, have greatly expanded the potential of the field. This conference, the fifth in a series firstly introduced in 2007, aspires to provide a unique forum for networking of investigators in the field of insect immunity and dissemination of their most recent and exciting discoveries.

The program of the conference is structured around thematic sessions that cover various state-of-the-art topics in insect immunology in a highly integrated manner:

• Insects as vectors for infectious diseases
• Insect-microbe symbioses
• Entomopathogens
• New insights on humoral and cellular immunity in insects
• Evolution of the immune system
• Immunity from behavior to metabolism
• Immunity beyond infections

 

Invited speakers
(provisional titles)

Di Chen (Sino-French Hoffmann Institute of Immunology, Guangzhou, China)
Response of adult male flies to injection of oncogenic cells

Sylvia Cremer (IST Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria)
Cooperative disease defence in social insect colonies

Jean-Michel Drezen (Insect Biology Research Institute, Tours, France)
Studies of endogenous viruses of parasitoid wasps involved in parasitism success in the genomic era

Dieter Ebert (Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Switzerland)
The genetic basis of host-parasite coevolution

Obata Fumiaki (RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Japan)
Commensal bacterial species and inflammaging, for “live fast, die young” lifestyle in Drosophila

Mathilde Gendrin (Pasteur Institute of Guyana, Cayenne, France)
Manipulating the mosquito microbiota to study its function

Ilona Grunwald-Kadow (Technisches Universität Munich, Freising, Germany)
Innate immune signaling in the formation of memory in Drosophila

Abdelaziz Heddi (INSA Lyon, Villeurbanne, France)
Immune and developmental processes constraining Sitophilus/Sodalis endosymbiotic relationship

Saskia Hogenhout (The John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom)
Tactics of host modulation by obligate biotrophs

Jean-Luc Imler (Institut de Biologie Moléculaire, Université de Strasbourg, France)
cGAS-STING antiviral signaling in flies

Waldan Kwong (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal)
Host-microbe interactions in the bee gut

Bruno Lemaitre (Global Health Institute, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland)
The Drosophila antimicrobial response at the time of the Cas9/CRISPR gene targeting revolution

Elena Levashina (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany)
Mosquito-parasite interactions

Harmit Malik (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle WA, USA)
Evolutionary constraints and tradeoffs in host-virus arms races

Lolitika Mandal (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, Manauli, India)
Beyond just immune response: role of (NF-κB) factor Relish in Drosophila developmental hematopoiesis

Caroline Montagnani (Host-pathogen-environment interaction, IFREMER, Montpellier, France)
Immune training capacities in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

Nancy Moran (University of Texas, Austin, USA)
Tba

Tony Nolan (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom)
Functional genetics tools in different Anopheles mosquito species: from understanding basic biology to new forms of population control

Darren Obbard (University of Edimburgh, Edimburgh, Scotland)
The family Drosophilidae as a model community for viral infection in the wild

Joao Pedra (University of Maryland School of  Medicine, Baltimore, USA)
Tick Immunobiology

Julien Pompon (MIVEGEC, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France)
Tripartite interactions between mosquito, flavivirus and host that enable bite-initiated skin infection and transmission

Carla Saleh (Pasteur Institute, Paris, France)
Virus infection in the fruit fly disrupts gut homeostasis by modulation of intestinal stem cell proliferation

Todd Schlenke (BIO5 Institute, Tucson, USA)
Recognition of foreign tissues in Drosophila

Neal Silverman (UMass Medical School, Worcester, USA)
SLC46s across the immunologic universe

Pauline Speder (Pasteur Institute, Paris, France)
Modelling infections of the central nervous system in Drosophila

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

Yuko Ulrich (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Iena, Germany)
Division of Labour and Disease in Insect Societies

Mylène Weill (Institute of Evolutionary Sciences Montpellier, France)
Evolution of wolbachia infecting culex pipiens mosquitoes
 

Deadline for application: March 14, 2023

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://cjm2-2023.sciencesconf.org/

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

The abstract must respect the following template:
- First line: title
- Second line: list of authors
- Third line: author's addresses
- Fourth line: e-mail of the presenting author

Abstract should not exceed 600 words. No figures.

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.