About EpiFlaMe P05:
Our project will characterize in vivo inflammatory memory to bacterial infections and its effect on cancer development.
We will use established and relevant mouse models of skin and gastrointestinal tract infection to determine the kinetic transcriptional, epigenetic and metabolic responses of organ-resident structural and stem cell populations throughout inflammation, resolution and recovery. Upon return to homeostasis, we will apply in vitro organoid strategies and inducible in vivo models to investigate stem cell potency and the consequences of inflammatory imprinting in structural and stem cells for future inflammation and cancer development. With support and close collaborations within EpiFlaMe, we anticipate that our molecular dataset complemented with the exploratory experiments will grant us essential deep insight into the hitherto unclear long-term consequences of infection-induced inflammatory memory in stem and structural cells.

Keywords: Immunology, stem cells, skin, gastro-intestinal tract, infection, inflammation