WEHI PhD Completion Seminar hosted by Dr Marcel Doerflinger

Jan Schaefer
PhD Student – Doerflinger, Infectious Diseases & Immune Defence division– Infection, Inflammation & Immunity Theme, WEHI

Developing precision RNA therapeutics for Tuberculosis

 

Davis Auditorium

Join via TEAMS

Including Q&A session

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is the single biggest infectious killer worldwide, and current antimicrobial treatment strategies are increasingly ineffective due to skyrocketing multi-drug resistance. Host-directed therapies targeting the host-pathogen interface to induce apoptosis of infected cells offer a promising avenue to clear the pathogen and promote adaptive immune responses while limiting the risk of drug resistance.

During his PhD, Jan established a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) based RNA delivery platform to target hotspots of Mtb infection, the alveolar macrophages. In addition, he assessed host-directed RNA therapeutics to promote apoptosis in Mtb-infected macrophages using RNAi and nanobody mRNA. In this seminar, Jan will present his macrophage-targeting LNP platform and its application to deliver host-directed RNA therapeutics in a pre-clinical mouse model of TB.

All welcome!