Speaker
Description
The innate immune system represents the first line of defence against pathogens. In organisms such as Drosophila it represents the only line of defence. Understanding the organization and working of this innate immune system and the way it counteracts a variety of pathogens can provide a basis for a deeper understanding of the immune system function and associated design principles.\cite{buchon2014immunity,ryckebusch2025layers} We develop a systems framework aimed at a structured system dissection of the innate immune response in Drosophila and its response to pathogens. As part of this, we dissect (i)complexities associated with the IMD pathway including the presence of both positive and negative feedback loops (ii)complexities associated with the pathogen including the presence of multiple sub-populations of pathogens as well as the impact of dead pathogens (iii)the interaction of the immune system network and pathogen populations. Our model analysis reveals the role of different feedback regulatory pathways in the IMD pathways and the role of macrophages on one hand, and the impact of resistant subpopulations of pathogens and dead pathogens on the other. This provides a range of insights into the organization and functioning of the innate immune network from a systems perspective, a basis for investigating the response of the innate immune response to a variety of pathogens, and a basis for understanding the impact of rewiring immune system networks in synthetic biology.
Bibliography
Buchon, Nicolas, et al. “Immunity in Drosophila Melanogaster — from Microbial Recognition to Whole-Organism Physiology.” Nature Reviews Immunology, vol. 14, no. 12, Dec. 2014, pp. 796–810. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1038/nri3763.
Ryckebusch, Faustine, et al. “Layers of Immunity: Deconstructing the Drosophila Effector Response.” eLife, vol. 14, Nov. 2025, p. RP107030. PubMed, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.107030.
