Project title : Immunity to Candida parapsilosis

My project focuses on the understanding of innate and adaptive immune responses induced by Candida parapsilosis. Currently I am studying the inflammatory response during C. parapsilosis infection, with special focus on inflammasome activation. Inflammasomes are large multiprotein complexes that are activated upon the sensing of specific “danger” signals and regulate the inflammatory response by driving the production of bioactive interleukin-1β. This cytokine plays a very important role in the immune response during fungal infection, as it promotes phagocytosis, enhances the production of other inflammatory mediators and also contributes to the development of adaptive immune responses. I have been using both in vitro and in vivo models (cell lines, primary human macrophages as well as KO mice) to study how the recognition of C. parapsilosis leads to inflammasome activation and IL-1β production in immune cells and how these responses contribute to protection against C. parapsilosis infection.