Dr Valerie Quesniaux [ Research Director: Experimental & Molecular Immunology and Neurogenetics, CNRS, Orleans France]

Host: Prof Muazzam Jacobs [ IDM/Div of Immunology]

Dr Valerie Quesniaux worked for >12 years at Novartis Pharma Basel, Switzerland on immunosuppressants and anti-inflammatory drugs after a PhD in Biochemistry in France and post-doctoral fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology, Freiburg, Germany.

Dr Quesniaux went back to public research in 2000 and is now Research Director and heading the research unit UMR7355 ‘Experimental and Molecular Immunology and Neurogenetics” at CNRS, Orleans, France. She has extended her field of interest to the immune responses involved in lung inflammation, and host-pathogen interactions, in particular in tuberculosis. They have analysed the role of TLRs, inflammasomes, TNF, IL-1, IL-17, IL-36 and, more recently the role of DNA sensing pathways such as cGAS/STING in these conditions.

Former coordinator of the European project “TB REACT”, she has contributed to several European, national or international research projects, including an International Associated Laboratory (LIA) “TB Immunity” with the University of Cape Town, South-Africa (2007-2014), and a second “LIA” on “Lung Inflammation” with the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (since 2012).