Biologists, Chemists and Physicists crosstalk over the skin
NaMeS students are invited to IPC PAS Seminar Lecture:
Prof. Joanna Cichy
Jagiellonian University · Department of Immunology
Krakow, Poland
Thursday 28th June, 2018, 13:00
Assembly hall of the IPC PAS, Kasprzaka 44/52, PL-01 224 Warszawa
Abstract
Skin interfaces directly with the outside world and as a result is equipped with a variety of strategies to cope with environmental challenges, such as microbial infection. These strategies include a multilayered structure that comprises uppermost epithelium (epidermis), the lowermost fat tissue, as well as infiltrating immune cells (leukocytes). Host must coexists with a myriad of useful microorganisms at portals of pathogen entry but must be sufficiently alerted to prevent potential infection. While the skin environment is clearly restrictive to microbial infection a few mechanisms are known. Therefore, the nature of the signals that orchestrate defensive mechanisms at body barriers, including skin remains a critical question in immunological research.
Here I review the currently known key mechanisms underlying skin barrier defense and discuss how disruption of these mechanisms can manifest in skin inflammatory diseases. Complete understanding of skin barrier defense would require collaboration of biologists with chemists and physicists to overcome critical technological challenges such as; i/ generation of in vitro skin models that reproduce the structure and physiological functions of this organ, including its interaction with skin microbiota, ii/ measurement of body temperature at tissue level, iii/assessing protein redox changes in tissue microenvironment and iv/ analysis of production of reactive oxygen species at subcellular levels.
