Palmira Barreira-Silva, Junior Researcher at ISSD group, was awarded an ESCMID Individual Research Grant.
Although an ancient disease, tuberculosis is still responsible for high mortality and morbidity worldwide, and it is urgent to discover new targets for the development of improved strategies to prevent and treat tuberculosis.
The Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AHR) plays a major role in the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and tuberculostatic antibiotic therapy. To propose this receptor as a potential target to be explored for the development of new therapies, it is essential to unravel the cell populations involved in AHR-mediated resistance to infection.
According to Palmira,
“this grant will help us to characterize the cellular profile of AHR activation and its kinetics during M. tuberculosis infection. With this we aim to contribute to a better understanding of the host immune response to this disease, generating knowledge to the development of more effective strategies to prevent and fight tuberculosis.”
