IBMC researcher receives Research Grant Award from the ESCMID

Sandra Sousa, IBMC researcher, is one of the thirteen researchers from all over the Europe awarded with a Research Grant Award from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).
The researcher is member of the Group of Molecular Microbiology and is focused on the study of molecular mechanisms underlying pathogen survival, multiplication and dissemination within host epithelial cells.

Bacterial toxins are produced by a number of different human pathogens and play key roles in the development of disease. Besides their role in bacterial pathogenesis, bacterial toxins are valuable products extensively used in biomedicine to treat specific pathologies and in research as tools to address cell biology issues. This project aims to provide significant and novel contributions to the understanding of host responses to bacteria and bacterial toxins. In particular, it should elucidate the cellular pathways targeted by pore-forming toxins to control host inflammatory response and provide new targets to modulate these responses in autoimmune pathologies.