November 28, 2022 - 12:00pm
Location:
601 Fairchild
Boston Children's Hospital
Host: Brent Stockwell
Title: Fanning the Flames: Pyroptosis in Infection and Cancer
Abstract: This seminar will review how pyroptosis (inflammatory cell death mediated by gasdermins) is activated in response to invasive infection and other signs of danger and its role in activating immunity and inflammation. Then I will discuss in detail a few recent studies that illustrate how pyroptosis contributes to immune defense and pathology. One example will be SARS-CoV-2 and the role of pyroptosis in severe COVID-19 disease. Another example will show how gasdermin E expression in tumor cells, which is normally repressed, can convert noninflammatory apoptosis to inflammatory cell death to activate effective anti-tumor immunity.