Speaker — Raquel Espin Palazon, Assistant Project Scientist, University of California at San Diego, Section of Cellular and Molecular Medicine

Title — Developmental inflammation, the unexplored area of immunology

Abstract — Pro-inflammatory cytokines have been highly studied in the context of classical inflammation after injury or infection, however, that’s not their only function. These cytokines are also required to build the tissues that form the vertebrate embryo in the absence of pathogenic insults. Utilizing the zebrafish model has allowed us the ability to visualize tissue development in real time, facilitating the characterization of this once unexplored phenomenon now known as Developmental Inflammation (Espin-Palazon et al., 2018 Trends Cell Biol). In my talk, I will illustrate how Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF), one of the most powerful pro-inflammatory signals, establishes Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) fate, generating the lineal precursors of the adult hematopoietic system. Expanding this unexplored field will be key to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling blood formation and improve human hematologic disease.

Host — Jeff Essner