Department for BioMedical Research (DBMR)

Lung Precision Medicine - LPM

Seydoux Lab

Ongoing Projects

Improving immune responses to vaccination using bacterial lysates as adjuvants

Most respiratory pathogens remain a major threat to public health, partially because current vaccine strategies do not induce strong and protective long-lasting immune responses, especially in vulnerable populations such as young children. One approach to improve vaccination is to include specific adjuvants that will increase antigen-specific adaptive immune responses in the respiratory tract. Bacterial lysate extracts were shown to protect from viral and bacterial infections through broad, unspecific stimulation of innate responses, however their adjuvant potential in vaccines was not investigated so far. This project includes a comprehensive analysis of the innate and adaptive immune responses in the respiratory tract following immunization of mice with bacterial lysates admixed with an inactivated H1N1 influenza virus as proof-of-principle antigen.

Development of human in vitro advanced co-culture models to assess innate responses to intranasal vaccination

Innate immunity is critical to limit respiratory viral entry and replication into upper respiratory airways and to coordinate the adaptive response. For instance, innate immune cells that reside in the mucosal epithelia are an essential first line of defense against respiratory pathogens, triggering pro-inflammatory, antiviral signaling pathways and cytokine production such as type I interferons. Epithelial and innate immune cells can moreover undergo extensive metabolic and epigenetic reprogramming upon infection or vaccination, leading to enhanced immune responses upon re-infection, a process termed trained immunity. This project aims to develop an advanced and realistic co-culture model using primary human epithelial cells and innate cells, recreating a “human nose”, where the innate responses upon intranasal immunization will be untangled to define specific vaccine signatures.

The role of breastmilk composition in the development of asthma

Allergic sensitization increased dramatically in recent years, leading atopic diseases such as asthma to affect more than 15% of children. Also, acute asthma exacerbations triggered by respiratory virus infections result in significant morbidity. Since there are no curative therapeutic approaches, measures to prevent asthma or to control respiratory virus infections are of particular significance. Symptoms are often already observed in early childhood, suggesting that specific environmental and nutritional exposures during early life, such as breastfeeding, could be of crucial importance. Despite extensive research, it is however still unknown whether breastfeeding protects against the allergy development. With our collaborators in Lübeck, our lab analyzes how breastmilk composition differs between allergic and healthy mothers, and whether this leads to the development of atopic diseases.