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Aude Bernheim (Institut Pasteur), Evolution of immunity across domains of life

Name: Aude Bernheim (Institut Pasteur), Evolution of immunity across domains of life
Start: 2024-11-21T13:30:00+01:00
End: 2024-11-21T14:30:00+01:00
Location: Bordeaux Biologie Sante, Salle Nord (1st floor)

21 November | 13 h 30 min - 14 h 30 min

Aude Bernheim is a microbiologist interested in how bacteria fight off their viruses. (See details below). She is invited by ImmunoConcEpt and more specifically by the Conceptual Biology & Medicine team.

Abstract

Immune defence mechanisms exist across the tree of life in such a wide diversity that the immune mechanisms of bacteria (antiphage systems) were considered unrelated to immunity of eukaryotes. However, recent discoveries unveiled hundreds of novel antiphage systems. Among this diversity of novel bacterial immune mechanism, it emerged that a subset of antiphage defense systems are conserved in eukaryotes and are major actors of diverse immune pathways, leading us to revisit this paradigm. I will discuss the evolutionnary dynamics of immunity across domains of life and how the conservation of immune modules in bacteria, plants and animals can lead to discoveries in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

Bio

Aude Bernheim did her PhD in the Pasteur Institute in Paris studying the evolution of CRISPR-Cas systems and her post-doc in the Weizmann Institute in Israël focusing on the discovery of novel prokaryotic immune systems.In 2021, she started the lab Molecular Diversity of Microbes that she currently leads. The lab joined the Pasteur Institute in 2023. Aude Bernheim’s research focuses on how bacteria fight their viruses called phages and the conservation of anti-phage systems in all domains of life: What is the diversity of anti-phage systems and how does it emerge? What are the molecular mechanisms of microbial immune systems? Can bacteria produce small molecules to target viruses? Can we discover novel human immune genes based on their similarity with bacterial antiphage systems ?

To answer these questions, she employs a wide range of disciplines mixing bioinformatics and experimental approaches including (but not limited to) genomics, phylogenetics, bacterial genetics, phage biology … Her work has been published in journals including Nature, Cell, Nature Microbiology, Nucleic Acid Research etc. She has reveived multiple awards for her research including the Rosalind Franklin Award for Young Investigator, the Jacques Monod Prize, the College de France prize for young researcher… She was recently elected to the European Academy of Microbiology and nominated to take part to the the french presidential council of science (full cv https://mdmlab.fr/who-we-are/).

Beyond her research, Aude Bernheim is deeply involved in improving inclusivity in science through citizen science and outreach projects. She’s also an activist for more gender equality and diversity in science (both for people and the science itself) (more https://mdmlab.fr/outreach/).

Learn more on the lab’s website for the most uptodate information https://mdmlab.fr/