CV Science

Benedicte Py PhD in Cell Biology

Course and current status

2014-now    : Research Associate, INSERM, Lyon

                  Principal Investigator, International Center for Infectiology Research

2012-2014: Associate Professor in Immunology, University of Lyon

2004-2012: Post-doc fellow in Junying Yuan's laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Boston

2000-2004: PhD student in Richard Benarous and Serge Benichou's laboratory, Cochin Institute, Paris

Scientific summary

Regulation of the inflammation

            Appropriate inflammatory response efficiently participates in the organismal protection against infections and mediates tissue repair. Adversely chronic or excessive inflammation fuels pathogenesis of a large set of conditions including gout and Alzheimer's diseases, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis and cancer, and causes deleterious autoinflammatory syndromes that may be lethal. Therefore, we decipher the molecular mechanisms regulating inflammation in order to identify new therapeutic targets and genetic susceptibility factors for these multifactorial conditions.

            At the molecular level, inflammation is triggered by the detection of pathogen- and damage-associated molecular pattern (PAMP and DAMP) through a repertoire of pattern recognition receptors (PRR). PAMPs are typically molecular structures essential and unique to microorganisms but absent from the host. DAMPs are inflammatory signals resulting from cellular damage or metabolic stress. PRRs are highly diverse in their specificity, subcellular localization and downstream signaling pathway. We are currently focusing on cytosolic PRRs, including NLRP3, controlling inflammasome assembly. These oligomeric complexes serve as activation platforms for caspase-1, a protease regulating maturation, and secretion of key pro-inflammatory cytokines as well as triggering a pro-inflammatory form of cell death. Using a pharmacological approach, we recently discovered that NLRP3 is regulated by its ubiquitination level.

More details on our research projects are availaible on our lab website.

Our lab is affiliated to the International Center For Infectiology Research (INSERM U1111, CNRS UMR5308, University of Lyon UCBL, ENS Lyon).

Our research is funded by the ERC and the ANR.