Stephen E. Girardin Lab

The Role of Nod-like Receptors (NLRs) In Innate Immunity

The Girardin lab studies innate immunity to bacterial pathogens in mammals, with an emphasis on Nod-like receptors (NLRs).

Announcements

February 2012: Fraser Soares presented a poster ("Loss of NLRX1 does not influence MAVS-dependent antiviral signaling") at the Keystone Meeting on Innate Immunity
February 2012: A new review article in Trends in Immunology on Th17 and enteric bacterial pathogens
January 2012: Work in collaboration with Dr Jen Gommerman's lab published in Nature
May 2012: 2 new papers from the lab are in press, one at Infection and Immunity by Jooeun Lee et al., one in Cell Host & Microbe by Ivan Tattoli et al.

Paper of the Week

The "Paper of the Week" features a coup de coeur for a recently published article in the field of innate immunity or microbial pathogenesis, and is picked by members of the lab. Feel free to leave a comment on our subjective choice!

Structure and Functional Characterization of the RNA-Binding Element of the NLRX1 Innate Immune Modulator
Immunity. 2012 Feb 29. [Epub ahead of print]

Stephen E. Girardin's comment on this paper:

An interesting study showing the first structure of a mammalian Nod-like receptor (NLR) leucine-rich repeat (LRR) region. Evidence is provided to demonstrate that the LRR region undergoes trimerization of three dimers, leading to the formation of a hexamer in the crystal. Moreover, for each monomer, the LRR region seems to have three distinct sub-regions, with the canonical LRR region (in the center) being flanked by N-ter and C-ter alpha helices. The authors also showed that NLRX1 LRR region could bind RNA (double stranded better than single stranded). It remains unclear what RNA could be potentially detected in physiological conditions: viral RNA, host RNA? Does NLRX1 bind RNA in the mitochondrial matrix, where it resides?

Past Papers...

A role for mitochondria in NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Zhou R, Yazdi AS, Menu P, Tschopp J. Nature. 2011 469(7329):221-5 - recommended by Stephen Girardin (Apr. 5, 2011) (detail...)
Plasma membrane contributes to the formation of pre-autophagosomal structures. Ravikumar B, Moreau K, Jahreiss L, Puri C, Rubinsztein DC. Nat Cell Biol. 2010 Aug;12(8):747-57 - recommended by Mahendrasingh Ramjeet (Nov. 30, 2010) (detail...)
Virus-plus-susceptibility gene interaction determines Crohn's disease gene Atg16L1 phenotypes in intestine. Cadwell K, Patel KK, Maloney NS, Liu TC, Ng AC, Storer CE, Head RD, Xavier R, Stappenbeck TS, Virgin HW. Cell. 2010 Jun 25;141(7):1135-45. - recommended by Leticia Carneiro (Oct. 15, 2010) (detail...)
Osborn SL, Diehl G, Han SJ, Xue L, Kurd N, Hsieh K, Cado D, Robey EA, Winoto A. Fas-associated death domain (FADD) is a negative regulator of T-cell receptor-mediated necroptosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Jul 20;107(29):13034-9. - recommended by Ivan Tattoli (Oct. 1, 2010) (detail...)
Dube D, Schornberg KL, Shoemaker CJ, Delos SE, Stantchev TS, Clouse KA, Broder CC, White JM. Cell adhesion-dependent membrane trafficking of a binding partner for the ebolavirus glycoprotein is a determinant of viral entry. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Sep 3. [Epub ahead of print] - recommended by Fraser Soares (Sep. 18, 2010) (detail...)
Memory CD4+ T cells induce innate responses independently of pathogen. Strutt TM, McKinstry KK, Dibble JP, Winchell C, Kuang Y, Curtis JD, Huston G, Dutton RW, Swain SL. Nat Med. 2010 May;16(5):558-64, 1p following 564. Epub 2010 May 2 - recommended by Stephen Rubino (Sep. 3, 2010) (detail...)
Nachmani D, Lankry D, Wolf DG, Mandelboim O. The human cytomegalovirus microRNA miR-UL112 acts synergistically with a cellular microRNA to escape immune elimination. Nature Immunology 2010 Aug 8. - recommended by Arthur Ling (Aug. 20, 2010) (detail...)
c-di-AMP Secreted by Intracellular Listeria monocytogenes Activates a Host Type I Interferon Response Science. 2010 Jun 25;328(5986):1703-5 Woodward JJ, Iavarone AT, Portnoy DA - recommended by Stephen Girardin (Aug. 2, 2010) (detail...)

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