Multiplexed whole-body in vivo imaging monitoring of pathogen dissemination and immune responses dynamic

Thesis topic details

General information

Organisation

The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is a key player in research, development and innovation in four main areas :
• defence and security,
• nuclear energy (fission and fusion),
• technological research for industry,
• fundamental research in the physical sciences and life sciences.

Drawing on its widely acknowledged expertise, and thanks to its 16000 technicians, engineers, researchers and staff, the CEA actively participates in collaborative projects with a large number of academic and industrial partners.

The CEA is established in ten centers spread throughout France
  

Reference

SL-DRF-25-0458  

Direction

DRF

Thesis topic details

Category

Life Sciences

Thesis topics

Multiplexed whole-body in vivo imaging monitoring of pathogen dissemination and immune responses dynamics in tuberculosis

Contract

Thèse

Job description

This thesis is dedicated to set up a multiplexed medical imaging monitoring of pathogen colonization and associated immune responses dynamics at the whole body scale for various infectious diseases. This could provide an innovative and non-invasive tool to better understand dynamics links between immune responses and pathogen distribution throughout the body and potentially provide new biomarkers associated to several diseases. To tackle this issue this thesis would implement such strategy in tuberculosis disease. The main aim is to determine the relationship between Mycobacterium tuberculosis dissemination and associated immune responses across the whole body during the course of tuberculosis infection from early infection to latent or active tuberculosis thanks to innovative multiplexed imaging protocols. The goal of this study is to provide correlations in time and space between local bacterial burden and several immune cell infiltrations (activated macrophages and T lymphocytes subsets) occurring following infection and detected over time by imaging. These findings could then provide, with minimal invasiveness, predictive biomarkers on disease or local granuloma progression and may provide also valuable insight on potential immune targets for future preventive or curative strategies based on modulation of the immune system. To do so, this thesis would take advantage of the preclinical Non-human primate model of tuberculosis developed in France and on our in vivo imaging of pathogens and immune cells expertise in NHPs. Of note, deeper immune cell profiling in samples of interest (imaging guided) will be assessed by spatial or single-cell transcripomic technologies in tissue samples to provide additional readouts on TB pathophysiology and potential treatment efficacy.

University / doctoral school

Innovation Thérapeutique: du Fondamental à l’Appliqué (ITFA)
Paris-Saclay

Thesis topic location

Site

Fontenay-aux-Roses

Requester

Position start date

01/10/2025

Person to be contacted by the applicant

NANINCK Thibaut thibaut.naninck@cea.fr
CEA
DRF/JACOB//L3I
18, route du panorama
92265 Fontenay aux Roses
0146549006

Tutor / Responsible thesis director

NANINCK Thibaut thibaut.naninck@cea.fr
CEA
DRF/JACOB//L3I
18, route du panorama
92265 Fontenay aux Roses
0146549006

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