Vall d'Hebron Talks by VHIR 'Epigenetics and Inflammation: Basic Mechanisms and Clinical Implications for Sepsis'

Speaker: Dr. Esteban Ballestar, Group Leader in Epigenetics and Immunity at IJC, Barcelona.

Epigenetic modifications have key implications in relation to gene expression and associate with cell function. The patterns of epigenetic modification are highly sensitive to extracellular signals and can be altered under many different conditions representing both a reader of changes in the cell enviroment and a switch that triggers changes in expression of many genes. Epigenetic alterationsin different pathological contexts are under study as they can help dissect the undelying mechanisms of disease and provide novel clinical markers. In our lab, we have investigated mechanisms and potential clinical applications of epigenetics in immune cells.
Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. Sepsis can induce acute kidney injury and multiple organ failures and represents the most common cause of death in intensive care units. Immune responses during sepsis are complex, with the concomitant occurrence of both pro-inflammatory and antiinflammatory mechanisms. In many cases, sepsis survivors continue to succumb to secondary challenges, latent infections, or malignancies several years after the initial septic episode. 
In this conference, I will present our studies in relation to DNA methylation, a major epigenetic mark, in relation to inflammatory signals, their underlying targets, and in the context of sepsis. We have identified profound changes in the DNA methylation profiles in monocytes from individuals who have experienced an episode of sepsis and have associated our findins to both different effectors in these cells and various clinical indicators of sepsis patients, including the acquisition of aberrant immune responses and organ disfunction. This supports the relevance of epigenetic studies to better understand the alteratiosn in these patients and opens up the generation of novel markers to improve theri clinical treatment.

CV:Esteban Ballestar is leader of the Epigenetics and Immune Disease Laboratory at the Josep Carreras Research Institute (IJC) in Barcelona, Spain. There, he investigates the mechanisms involved in targeting epigenetic changes, mainly DNA methylation, in immune cells, with a particular emphasis in immune-related diseases (autoimmune and autoinflammatory syndromes, and primary immunodeficiencies) and diverse inflammatory pathological conditions. Ballestar obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Valencia (Spain), and has also worked at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA), the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) in Madrid and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute in Barcelona.  Author of more than one hundred and forty peer-reviewed manuscripts in high rank journals, he is member of a number of international scientific societies and reviewer for many journals and national and international funding agencies. In 2018, Ballestar was elected corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences. Since 2022, Ballestar is Visiting Chair Professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai

Host: Dr. Juan Carlos Ruiz, Rodríguez. Intensive Care Medicine, General Hospital Universitary Vall d'Hebron and main researcher, Shock, Organ Dysfunction and Resuscitation  (VHIR)
 

Inscriu-te aquí per assistir per Zoom: https://gencat.zoom.us/j/92640218667