Beneficiaries of the European Sepsis Academy

Istituto Clinico Humanitas (ICH)

ICH is a general hospital started in 1996 and is recognized in Italy as a Scientific Institute of Research and Care. The Research Institute is directed by Alberto Mantovani. The ICH laboratory has a long-standing interest in innate immunity and inflammation, and has made key contributions to the field of the interleukin-1 family, chemokines, pentraxins, and their role in infections, inflammatory responses and cancer-related inflammation, with a focus on negative regulatory processes. Current work in the research group is focused on the long pentraxin-3 in innate immunity and as potential biomarker of inflammatory conditions, on negative regulators of inflammation (TIR8/SIGIRR, decoy receptors), and on markers of macrophage polarization (MSF). Located in the Department of immunity and Inflammation, the laboratories are fully equipped with all the state-of-the-art instrumentation necessary for cellular and molecular studies, including Flow Cytometry, Imaging Unit, an SPF Animal House with dedicated rooms to perform experimental infections and in vivo imaging.

Involved researchers:

Alberto Mantovani, MD was appointed Professor of General Pathology at the University of Brescia, Italy, in 1994, where he worked within the Department of Medical Biotechnology. In 2001 he moved to the University of Milan, Institute of General Pathology. His research is focused on the molecular function and regulation circuits of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. He described the negative regulation circuits of the type II decoy receptor for IL-1 and discovered that pro- and anti-inflammatory signals regulate the level of chemokine production and of receptors. His group cloned PTX3 (cDNA, genome, human, mouse), the first member of the long pentraxin family, and defined its function in innate immunity and inflammation.

Barbara Bottazzi, PhD is Head of the Laboratory of Immunopharmacology and is expert in biochemistry (PTX3 and MSF). She participated in the definition of biochemical and structural properties of PTX3 and on the characterization of PTX3 interactome. A particular interest has been devoted to the setting of the process for the purification of a clinical-grade protein and to the validation of PTX3 as diagnostic and prognostic marker in human pathology. In addition she expressed recombinant MSF and is presently addressing the role of the molecule in the context of macrophage polarization.

Cecilia Garlanda, PhD is Head of the Laboratory of Experimental Immunopathology. Her activity has been focused on the functional characterization of original molecules of the immune system, in particular the long pentraxin PTX3 in the context of innate immune responses to pathogens and in the regulation of inflammatory responses in conditions of infections or tissue damage. She is also focused on TIR8/SIGIRR, a member of the family of IL-1 Receptors and Toll Like Receptors, acting as a negative regulator of inflammatory and immune responses in the context of inflammatory diseases, infections and cancer. Her activities mainly consist in pre-clinical studies, taking advantage of original gene-modified animals.

Sebastien Jaillon, PhD His research focuses on innate immunity and inflammation and he has notably contributed to a better understanding of the mechanisms used by neutrophils in defence against fungi, bacteria, resolution of inflammation and regulation of adaptive immunity.

bioMérieux

bioMérieux is a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics for more than 50 years, its development has been driven by a pioneering spirit and unrelenting commitment to improve public health worldwide. bioMérieux is global IVD company with sales amounting to €1.588 billion in 2013, among which 87% is done outside of France. Today, bioMérieux provides diagnostics solutions (reagents, instruments, software) in more than 150 countries through 41 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. bioMérieux is world leader in microbiology and a major player in infectious diseases, through for example high medical value tests in immunology. The Sepsis Joint Unit is dedicated to biomarker discovery and validation in intensive care unit patients and especially sepsis patients. PhD and master students are regularly trained in the Sepsis Joint Unit. Students will have access to a large list of classical and more high tech tools and platforms (microarrays, qRT-PCR, cellular culture facilities, mass spectrometers ESI-MS, multiplex ELISA platforms) together with an adapted biostat and bioinformatics environment.

Involved researchers:

Alexandre Pachot PharmD PhD. Director of Medical Diagnostic Discovery Department. He graduated from Pharmacy university of Lyon in 2002 and has a PhD in immunogenomic since 2005. His work focused on immune response monitoring following sever insults like sepsis or trauma and led to the identification of new relevant biomarkers. After 6 years of experience as clinical research project leader and research lab manager at bioMérieux and Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL), he joined Sanofi Pasteur as head Head of R&D Immuno-chemistry Platform. Since 2009, he’s been successively Program Director Infectious Diseases & Critical Care at bioMérieux Biomarkers Department, and Director of Diagnostic Discovery Departement, leading a group ~40 researchers and technicians with a large project portfolio in the field of infectious diseases and critical care.

François Mallet PhD. has been developing for several years a research program on endogen retroviruses within bioMérieux and is the creator of a HERV specific microarray. He is recognized as an international expert on HERV.

Julien Textoris, MD, PhD is Co-Director of the Sepsis Joint Unit and will also be involved in the training and supervision of ESRs working of seconded at bioMérieux . He holds a PhD in bioinformatics and studied the host response to injury, mainly through transcriptional analysis and systems biology. He was appointed assistant professor in Immunology in Aix-Marseille school of medicine before joining bioMérieux in February 2014, as head of a joint research unit (~14 people) between bioMérieux and Hospices Civils de Lyon.

University College London (UCL)

UCL is one of the leading research universities worldwide with a wide range of expertise and facilities. The Intensive Care Unit and Research Department of Clinical Physiology has a major interest in sepsis and multi-organ dysfunction, in particular the role of mitochondrial dysfunction. The group focusses on basic, translational and clinical aspects including novel monitoring devices and diagnostics. One monitor (CardioQ oesophageal Doppler) is now commercially available in 30 countries, another (bladder tissue oxygen) is shortly to enter clinical trials, and a third (NADH fluorescence) is being developed in lab models. The Singer group has a highly sophisticated animal lab with sepsis models, with monitoring including haemodynamics, blood gas and biochemical analyses, metabolic cart, functional muscle testing (e.g. myography, treadmill), tissue oxygen and mitochondrial NADH redox state, and a wet lab offering ex vivo and in vitro mitochondrial biochemical and physiological assessments (e.g. Seahorse). Core platforms within UCL offer advanced technologies such as dual photon beam confocal microscopy, NGS, etc.

Involved researchers:

Mervyn Singer was appointed Professor of Intensive Care Medicine (at University College London in 2001. Singer sits on the Council of the International Sepsis Forum and is co-chair of the 2014 ESICM/SCCM Sepsis Redefinitions International Task Force. He is also a Senior Investigator of the UK National Institute of Health Research (2009-17) and Inflammation Theme Lead of the Infection/Immunity/Inflammation Board of the UCL/UCLH Biomedical Research Centre. He has been Clinical PI (or on the Steering Committee) of multiple academic and industry multicentre studies, many of which are related to sepsis (e.g. EU-funded CORTICUS study, UK DoH-funded PaCMan study).

Jo Spencer:  Following 20 years of training in the investigation of human cells and tissue in pathology departments, Prof. Spencer moved to the Department of Immunobiology at Guy’s Hospital in 2004.  She became Professor of Experimental Medicine in 2011. Prof. Spencer is involved in all areas of teaching at KCL including the delivery, organisation and administration of teaching to undergraduates and postgraduates. Prof. Spencer has been studying human B cells in health and disease for the last 30 years. In that time she has made key contributions to the definition of human B cell subsets and lineages. Her studies have impacted on human health, for example by contributing directly to the treatment of MALT lymphomas using H pylori eradication therapies. Current work is focused on the role of B cells and the microbiota in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.