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Immunopathology of Virus Infections

FOIL-VIII at Raitenhaslach

Amidst the heat of high summer, exactly a year after FOIL-VII, we went to Raitenhaslach again for the eighth FOIL- Future Of Innate Lab – retreat!

It is our great pleasure to have the 3-day retreat with the ArboSys lab, led by our dear alumnus Pietro. We learnt about each other’s projects during the flash talks and exchanged ideas in various aspects of our research. After mingling with the ArboSys colleagues, we all started to look at mosquitoes in amazement, just not the ones by Wöhrsee… As always, we made great plans for the future, some of which are already implemented since our return!  

We continued the fun tradition of Innate Olympics by Wöhrsee in the afternoon, where we performed our lab routines like cell transfer and sample labelling with some extra excitement. In the end, everyone won some prizes for the future, and we refreshed our group picture!

Three days passed swiftly, but the good memories will remain for a long time! We look forward to another exciting year of research at the Innate lab and are ready to combat virus infection together with the ArboSys lab!

Text by Yiqi, photos by Andreas, Anqi and Lila.

Congratulations and goodbye Dr Andersen!

On 24 July, Line successfully defended her thesis. Congratulations to Line – our Dr Andersen deserved her PhD not only in P2Y signalling but also in cake baking! It was a journey with lots of up and downs, but Line mastered the rollercoaster of P2Y with impressive diligence.

This Friday was Line’s last day in the lab. She organised a fantastic cocktail party for everyone and received a little surprise from us! Dear Line, we’re proud of your achievement and thankful for your contribution to the lab, especially in taming our qPCR Commander. You and your cakes will always occupy a sweet spot in our hearts (and adipose tissue). We wish you all the best in your new position in Copenhagen!

Text by Yiqi, photos by Melissa, cakes by Line.

Congratulations Dr Bergant!

At the end of May, another doctor graduated from our lab – congratulations to Valter (aka Dr Bergant)! Valter has conducted fantastic research during his PhD and wrote his thesis on “Data-driven host-directed antiviral drug repurposing against emerging pathogens”. He gave a great presentation at his defence that his committee would like to add infinite “summa” in front of “cum laude”. A huge well done from all of us! We are looking forward to your future contribution to the scientific community!

Read his first author papers here:

Multilevel proteomics reveals host perturbations by SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV

Attenuation of SARS-CoV-2 replication and associated inflammation by concomitant targeting of viral and host cap 2′-O-ribose methyltransferases

mRNA 3’UTR lengthening by alternative polyadenylation attenuates inflammatory responses and correlates with virulence of Influenza A virus

Text by Yiqi. Photos by Eva Lucija Kozak.

 

FOIL-VII at Raitenhaslach

We are just back from our seventh FOIL – Future Of Innate Lab – retreat at Raitenhaslach!

During the days we had heated (as expected in summer) discussions about not only our own projects but also the state of the art in various fields of our interest. It offered us a great overview of things going on inside and outside of our lab. Together we identified goals for individuals and the lab as a whole. We can’t wait to incorporate the new ideas and technologies in the upcoming year!

We concluded each day with a number of soft skill training. We improved our concentration at the Innate Pool Tournament and built some physical strength at the Innate Olympics (swimming, beach volleyball, Speedminton, long jump). Our creativity was further boosted by an intense dance workshop and an improvised Innate Band by the beautiful Wöhrsee.

We returned home with sores in our bodies, inspiration in our minds and joy in our hearts! Refreshed, we look forward to the future opportunities and challenges to fight virus infection!

Text by Yiqi. Photos by Andreas, Antonio, Anqi, Dorsa, Jyoti, Lila, Susanne and Virginie.