Lecture Title: Innate immune response of phagocytes to PAMPs and DAMPs
Dr. Zanoni received his Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of Roma-Tor Vergata (Rome, Italy). He performed postdoctoral training with Dr. Francesca Granucci at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Milan, Italy) and with Dr. Jonathan C. Kagan at Boston Children’s Hospital (Boston, USA). Dr. Zanoni is currently an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, and Research Faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital, Division of Immunology and Division of Gastroenterology (Boston, USA).
He holds the Boston Children’s Hospital Chair in the Field of Immunology at Harvard University, Faculty of Medicine. He is an Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award at the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and a Lloyd J. Old STAR Investigator at the Cancer Research Institute.
The Zanoni laboratory studies innate immune cell biology, with the goal of understanding the earliest events that initiate immunity to infection, or drive the development of immune-mediated diseases. Dr. Zanoni research is centered on the study of pattern recognition receptor (PRR) signaling pathways initiated in response to the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular pattern and damage-associated molecular patterns.
The organizing principles that govern PRR signaling are largely unknown, yet elucidating them is imperative for answering fundamental questions about the pathophysiological development of the immune response. Dr. Zanoni’s group seeks to understand the events that initiate protective immunity in response to infection (to bacteria, viruses, and fungi) and tissue injury, and how dysregulation of these events may lead to immune-mediated disorders, such as IBDs, atherosclerosis, sepsis, as well as tumor development.
