General
Sterile inflammation results from the accidental activation of the innate immune system by one’s own molecules, in the absence of an infection. Such inflammation can occur when the cytosolic nucleic acid sensing receptors, which normally detect viral DNA or RNA, are triggered by our own nucleic acids, leading to unwanted innate immune activation. This happens, for example, in certain monogenic autoinflammatory disorders such as Aicardi-Goutières Syndrome. In our research we study the molecular mechanisms that prevent activation of the nucleic acid sensing machinery by our own RNA, and what happens if these mechanisms fail.
Biography
Annemarthe van der Veen studies how innate immune pathways control viral infection and sterile inflammation. She did her PhD research in the lab of Prof. Hidde Ploegh (Whitehead Institute, Cambridge USA) and her post-doc in the lab of Prof. Caetano Reis e Sousa (The Francis Crick Institute, London). In 2019, she joined the Department of Immunology at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), where she now works as an associate professor. Her group studies the molecular pathways underlying innate immune activation by viral or self-derived nucleic acids and how these pathways can be exploited to improve therapies for autoinflammatory diseases or cancer.
Host: Monika Wolkers.