Woluwe-Saint-Lambert
Auditoire F (aud. Centraux)
A biochemical exploration of the immune system:
from atomic resolution to non-invasive imaging in vivo
Wednesday, May 10, 2017, at 17:00 in auditorium F
Lecture given by Professor Hidde PLOEGH
Boston Children's Hospital & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
The lecture will be followed by a reception.
A native of The Netherlands, Hidde Ploegh is a world-renowned immunologist, cell biologist, and biochemist. A Professor of Immunology with Harvard Medical School, he also heads the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Boston Children's Hospital. Previously he was a Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He is known for his contributions in understanding the various strategies used by viruses to evade our immune system. These findings have illuminated the field of host-pathogen interactions. Prof. Ploegh and his team also reported new mechanisms by which dendritic cells sense the presence of antigens and instruct the immune response. His work elucidated how products of the MHC are assembled and delivered to the right destination to help an immune response kick in. In the last few years, Prof. Ploegh has broadened his research interests to include tumor immunology and immuno-PET to track the impact of antibody-based therapies that target immune checkpoints such as PD-L1. His work advanced the field of protein quality control where he pioneered chemical-based strategies.
A contributor to over 500 papers, Hidde Ploegh has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2016.