Modelling of lipid genetic and metabolic pathways in response to infection and immune stimulation Implication in atherosclerosis

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Modelling of lipid genetic and metabolic pathways
in response to infection and immune
stimulationImplication in atherosclerosis
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Background Atherosclerosis

• Atherosclerosis
• The main cause of death in the Western world
• Multifactorial disease Environmental (food,
  smoking), genetic
• Inflammation disease triggering complex
  mechanisms, poorly understood.

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Atherosclerosis and cytomegalovirus

• CMV is a double-stranded DNA beta herpes virus
  affecting 50 of the population.
• Increasing evidence linking CMV and
  atherosclerosis (epidemiologic, antibodies, gene
  expression etc)
• Nevertheless cellular mechanisms are not well
  understood.
• Recently, lipid modulation experiments (statins,
  polyunsaturated fatty acid etc), showed a
  potential mechanism in viral and inflammatory
  process.

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Project overview

• Aim Build a model of the lipid and immune
  pathway to provide a better understanding of the
  interplay between lipid metabolism, immunity and
  infection.
• Strategy
• Pathway mapping based on scientific literature
• Micro-array database analysis
• Identification of potential cellular mechanisms
  and therapeutic targets using drug experiments.
• Designing drugs and biochemical experiments to
  explore a new line of investigation.

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Pharmacology
Biology
Biology
Clinical
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
Pathway Modelling
Pathway Modelling
Hypothesis generation
Testing hypothesis in the bench!!!
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• Thank you