NEWS
Problems in the Biology of Complex Diseases, Spring 2025
(CMM, MCB, GENE, IMB, PCOL 595H)
Friday, 9-10.50 am, Keating Bioresearch Building, Rm. 103
https://arizona.zoom.us/j/82684698575
| Jan 17 Donata Vercelli (UA) Why are Complex Diseases complex? Jan 24 Avery DeVries (UA) Complex disease genetics: Shifts in the genotype-phenotype paradigm Jan 31 Deb Meyers (Mayo Clinic) Letting the Genome out of the Bottle – Will We Get our Wish: Monogenic Mutations or Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS)? Feb 7 Eugene Bleecker (Mayo Clinic) Heterogeneity of complex disease phenotypes Feb 14 Carole Ober (U. Chicago) Estimating the heritability of epigenetic-defined endotypes of allergic phenotypes Feb 21 Dean Billheimer (UA) To P, or not to P: the value of P-values Feb 28 Donata Vercelli (UA) Q&A Mar 7 Steve Galli (Stanford) Why do we have mast cells? Mar 14 Spring Break No classes Mar 21 Nancy Cox (Vanderbilt U.) Why we ought to be thinking about REMOVING genetic contributions to many of our everyday laboratory measurements (the opposite of “Genetic Medicine” or actually part of it?) Mar 28 Susan Lynch (UCSF) Leveraging Microbiomes to Understand Human Health Apr 4 Donata Vercelli (UA) Complex diseases and the environment: The farming case study Apr 11 Kacey Ernst (UA) The One Health model Apr 18 Darren Cusanovich (UA) Of chromatin-based gene regulation and single cells Apr 25 Mark Ansel (UCSF) RNA regulation of immune responses May 2 Donata Vercelli Wrapping up… |
| Shun Satake’s farewell lunch. January 2025 |
Recent presentations by Donata VercelliAsthma at the Intersection of Genes, Environment and Development. American Psychosomatic Society Virtual “Disease A Year” (DAY) Symposium: Asthma, November 9, 2023 How Microbe-rich Environments Protect Children from Asthma. Respiratory Medicine Unit, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, UK, December 4, 2023 How Microbe-rich Environments Protect Children from Asthma. The Charles Janeway Memorial Pediatric Grand Rounds, Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, December 13, 2023 Neonatal Trained Immunity and the Trajectory to Childhood Asthma. Course, “Immune Maturation, Innate Immunity, and Allergic Disease”, Annual Meeting, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Washington DC, February 23, 2024 IgE Regulation. AAAAI/ACAAI Joint Board Review Course, April 2024 (online) The Noise of Time. Monthly Conference Series, Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, April 18, 2024 The Context Dependency of OM-85. Invited lecture, Training Immunity Symposium, OM Pharma, Geneva, Switzerland, April 23, 2024 How Environmental Microbes Protect from Asthma. Grand Rounds, Center for Individualized Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ, May 7, 2024 The Farm Effect and Asthma Protection. Live radio interview, Arizona Science, National Public Radio, April 11, 2024 – aired April 19, 2024 |
A new paper is available online ahead of print
ministration of a Bacterial Lysate to the Airway Compartment Is Sufficient to Inhibit Allergen-Induced Lung Eosinophilia in Germ-free Mice. Journal of Leukocyte Biology. March 2024. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38470858
Presentation at the Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Centers (AADCRC) Annual Steering Committee Meeting
October 16-17, 2023, Rockville, MD
| Vadim Pivniouk. Intranasal Administration of Amish Dust Extracts Prevents RV1B-Induced Lung Neutrophilia. |
Presentations at the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum
33rd Biennial Symposium, 10-14 October 2023, Montréal, Canada
| Donata Vercelli. Asthma-protective Agents in Dust from Traditional Farm Environments.
Vadim Pivniouk. Preventive but not Therapeutic Administration of a Bacterial Lysate Suppresses Experimental Allergic Asthma. Sydney VanLinden. Transcriptional Gene Networks in the Lungs of Mice Exposed to Asthma-Protective Microbial Agents: A Comparative Analysis. |
At the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum
33rd Biennial Symposium, 10-14 October 2023, Montréal, Canada
| (from the left) Avery DeVries, Donata Vercelli and Sydney VanLinden |
09/2023
Sydney VanLinden was awarded a Zukowski Travel Award through the Genetics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program for the upcoming 33rd Biennial Symposium of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum (CIA) in Montreal, Canada.
08/2023
We have a new visiting scholar, Maithreyi Prakash, participating in the Global Research Internship, a dual-degree program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine facilitated by the University of Arizona and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University in India.
08/2023
Our lab is always looking for motivated and responsible student volunteers. We will consider you if you are able to commit to at least two years in the lab.
07/2023
Sydney VanLinden was awarded an Alain L. de Weck Travel Grant for the upcoming 33rd Biennial Symposium of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum (CIA) in Montreal, Canada.
07/2023
New publication
Vercelli D. From Amish farm dust to bacterial lysates: The long and winding road to protection from allergic disease. Seminars in Immunology, 2023 Jul;68:101779. doi: 10.1016/j.smim.2023.101779. Epub 2023 May 19. PMID: 37210851.
07/2023 presentations
| Donata Vercelli. Eosinophils and Microbial Signals in Asthma. Cutting Edge invite lecture, 12th Biennial Symposium, International Eosinophil Society, Hamilton, ON, Canada, July 13, 2023. |
06/2023
Sydney VanLinden has been selected as a NIEHS Predoctoral Trainee in Environmental Toxicology of Human Disease through the Pharmacology and Toxicology Department.
06/2023
New publication
Marques dos Santos M., V. Pivniouk, B. Rankl, A. Walker, G. Pagani, N. Hertkorn, P. Schmitt-Kopplin, C. Müller, F. Bracher, J. Merl-Pham, S.M. Hauck, M. Schloter, A.N. Michael, D. Anderson, L. Honeker, J. Gozdz, O. Pivniouk, M. Holbreich, F.D. Martinez, S.A. Snyder, E. von Mutius and D. Vercelli. Asthma-protective agents in dust fron traditional farm environments. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol.(2023) Online ahead of print. PMID: 37271318
05/2023 presentations
| Donata Vercelli. Microbial Agents and Asthma Protection. Environmental Health and Lung Research School Distinguished Speakers Series, Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany, May 11, 2023 (online)
Pivniouk Vadim, O. Pivniouk, J.L. Uhrlaub, A. Molzahn, H. Kimura, M. Kraft, J. Nikolich-Zugich and D. Vercelli. IL-13 protects epithelial cells from SARS-CoV-2 infection by inhibiting early ACE2-mediated events. Annual Meeting, American Association of Immunologists, Washington, DC, May 11-15, 2023 DeVries Avery, P. Ezeh, D. Anderson, M. Holbreich, V. Pivniouk, C. Ober, and D. Vercelli. Consensus network analysis identifies core transcriptional pathways that prevent disruption of the human airway epithelial barrier. International Conference, American Thoracic Society, Washington, DC, May 19-24, 2023 Donata Vercelli. What Are Key Immune Mechanisms for Asthma Onset in Humans? Expert Panel, OM Pharma, Geneva, Switzerland, May 31, 2023 |
03-04/2023 presentations
| Donata Vercelli. Immunomodulations: A new tool against SARS-CoV-2? Asthma & Infection Immunity Academy, Qingdao, China, March 25, 2023 (online)
Donata Vercelli. What Are Key Immune Mechanisms for Asthma Onset in Humans? European Respiratory Society Research Seminar, Are We Ready to Translate Epidemiological and Mechanistic Studies into Reality? Berlin, Germany, April 17, 2023 |
02/2023
| Donata Vercelli has been elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a distinct honor in the scientific community.
https://healthsciences.arizona.edu/connect/honors/0323/dr-donata-vercelli-named-2022-aaas-fellow |
01/2023
| New publications
Vercelli D. and S.V. Lynch. Interactions between host epigenetics and microbiota: Who does what to whom, when and why? Perspective, J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. PMID: 36720286 Pivniouk V. and Vercelli D. The OM-85 bacterial lysate: A new tool against SARS-CoV-2? Multidiscip. Respir. Med. 18:906 PMID: 36798954 |
09/2022
| HRH King Charles III hosted a global symposium of allergy scientists — Natasha Allergy Research Foundation – narf.org.uk
Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, Professor of Immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton, a World Allergy Organisation Centre of Excellence, who has successfully campaigned for air pollution to be recognised as an asthma-related cause of death. Speakers included: Tari Haahtela, Professor of the University of Helsinki in Finland, who introduced the theory in 2011 that global loss of … |
07/2022
Avery’s paper was accepted for publication!
DeVries, A., K. McCauley, D. Fadrosh, K. Lynch, K.E. Fujimura, D.A. Stern, S.V. Lynch, and D. Vercelli. Maternal prenatal immunity, neonatal trained immunity, and early airway microbiota shape childhood asthma development. Allergy 2022 Jul 16. doi: 10.1111/all.15442. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 35841380
06/2022
We have a visiting scholar, Varna Sree Kumar, participating in the Global Research Internship, a dual-degree program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine facilitated by the University of Arizona and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University in India.