Immunology and Hematology Department
Department head : Alain TRAUTMANN
Assistants department heads : Gilles CHIOCCHIA and Isabelle DUSANTER-FOURT
This new department is constituted by 10 teams and 1 group Institut Cochin.
The rationale underlying the constitution of this new department is to put together all scientists of the Institute that work on blood cells.
Major axes of research
1) Analysis of bood cells in the process of normal or pathological hematopoiesis (teams I. Dusanter-Fourt and E. Cramer-Bordé, C. Lacombe and P. Mayeux, F. Porteu).
The different topics include the expansion of hematopoietic stem cells, the molecular control of hematopoiesis, in particular megacaryopoïesis and erythropoïesis. Some of the studies concern hematopoietic disorders such as acute leukemias or myelodysplasic syndromes, for which they have access to important patient cohorts, through the "Centre d‟Investigation Biologique" (CIB Cochin-Necker-Hôtel-Dieu).
2) Analysis of bood cells form an immunological point of view (teams A. Blondel and A.Caignard, A. Hosmalin, B. Lucas, A. Trautmann and G. Bismuth)
These teams tackle some very basic questions (e.g., on T cell signalling, on the control of the size of the peripheral CD4+ T cell pool, on the role of type I Interferon in adaptive antiviral immunity), but also questions directly related to pathologies such as cancer, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases (HIV, HCV), with excellent relations with clinicians working in Hopital Cochin or elsewhere.
a) antigen presentation and antigen recognition
b) immunological defects associated with tumours, and tumour features that contribute to their resistance to an immune response
c) susceptibility loci and molecular signatures associated with autoimmune diseases.
3) Cell signalling.
All teams in the I-H department have an interest in cell signalling, and the study of several signalling pathways is shared by different teams examining very different functions. For instance, the importance of the PI3K/Akt-dependent Foxo transcription factor is studied both in the control of T cell quiescence and homing (team A. Trautmann and G. Bismuth) and in that of acute myeloblastic leukemias (team C. Lacombe and P. Mayeux). Similarly, the NF-kB pathway is of major importance both for the control of type I interferon and in that of pathological hematopoiesis such as lymphomagenesis (group Institut Cochin V. Baud). A last example : the importance of the ERK pathway is studied both in the control of thrombopoietin functions (team I. Dusanter-Fourt and E. Cramer-Bordé) and in T cell signalling (team A. Trautmann and G. Bismuth).
