cis Crick Institute (London, UK). The successful ... Crick and Pasteur PIs visited iMM Lis- boa's facilities and ... Lamego, visited the Francis Crick Insti- tute's Grant ...
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News & EFIS Immunology’s Twinning Triangle
This year a new European Commissionfunded research cluster, fully focused on Immunology and Infection, was born: TwinnToInfect (http://twinntoinfect.eu). It gathers immunologists and infection biologists from Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM Lisboa, Portugal), Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) and The Francis Crick Institute (London, UK). The successful Horizon 2020 “Twinning” application was coordinated by iMM’s Director, Maria Mota, a household name in malaria research, and brings together a total of 27 Principal Investigators (PIs), 9 from each of the three institutions. The global scope of the research is illustrated by deep expertise on many immune cell types – from innate lymphoid cells, neutrophils or dendritic cells, to B cells and all kinds of T-cell subsets (CD8, Th1, Th2, Th17, Treg, Tfh, γδ, NKT . . . ) and mastery of infection models spanning TB, malaria, HIV and herpes viruses, Shigella or Trypanosoma. With such a vast repertoire at hand, the cluster is positioned to establish new and exciting collaborations across the Pyrenees and the English Channel (Figure 1). As a H2020 “Twinning” priority, the project should leverage and strengthen the science and technology capacity of iMM Lisboa within this network of excellence. This will rely on new scientific and technical collaborations through shortterm staff exchanges and on-site visits; training and mentoring of young researchers and students; and targeted dissemination and communication activities. These actions are coordinated by PIs with the precious help of funding officers (especially Joana Lamego and her team at iMM) and the insightful input from an Advisory Board composed of renown Immunologists: Andreas Radbruch (DRFZ, Germany), Herman Waldmann (University of Oxford, UK) and
Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren (Karolinska Institute, Sweden). A priori, the scientific strategy of TwinnToInfect is to focus on three main research lines: 1. development of immune cells and their homeostasis 2. immune responses to infection 3. infection/ immune-driven pathology, including inflammatory disorders. By successfully implementing the specific collaborations and training actions, the consortium will prove the value of this new European Commission-funded programme and return the investment made through significant impact on European immunological research.
Kicking-off The project’s kick-off meeting took place in April in the Arr´ abida Convent, south of Lisbon, Portugal. It gathered 19 PIs from the three partner institutions and Herman Waldman, from the Advisory Board (Figure 2). On the first day, an overview of the project, as well as a synopsis of its expected impact in excellence, competitiveness and innovation were presented by the Coordinator, Maria Mota, and the project officer, Joana Lamego. This was followed by intense discussion on practical aspects of implementation. An important outcome was to commit to an innovative hands-on training/ mentoring model. This will include continuous mentorship, on-site training and two major workshoplike events (involving many PIs and staff members) to be held at iMM Lisboa in 2017 and 2018. A group of PIs volunteered to devise the strategy and implementation
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of this training/mentoring scheme: Lu´ıs Grac¸a and Lu´ısa Figueiredo (iMM), Anne O’Garra and Jean Langhorne (Crick), and Jim Di Santo and Philippe Bousso (Pasteur). The second day was dedicated to the presentation of the scientific interests of the participants and the discussion of potential collaborations to be established throughout the project (Figure 3). For example, Silva-Santos (iMM), Hayday (Crick), Cumano and Pereira (Pasteur) expressed their common interest in the molecular programming of γδ thymocyte development; Veldhoen (iMM), Stockinger (Crick) and Di Santo (Pasteur) anticipated joining efforts on cytokine responses by intestinal lymphocytes; and Mota (iMM), Reis e Sousa (Crick) and Scherf (Pasteur) aligned on innate receptor-mediated mechanisms of Plasmodium recognition. The intense planning and brainstorming activities were sprinkled with informal networking activities. From a walking visit to the Convent over coffee break to a social event with Fado (Portuguese folk music), there was time to strengthen existing and launch new collaborations intended to last beyond the duration of the project. Finally, Crick and Pasteur PIs visited iMM Lisboa’s facilities and met the local PhD students and post-doctoral fellows who will be the great beneficiaries of the planned TwinnToInfect actions. The meeting ended with a unifying sense of strengthened ties between the three partner institutions and great expectations for the proposed activities.
Looking forward Since the kick-off meeting, various TwinToInfect actions have already taken place. Namely, staff exchanges from the
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Figure 1. The European triangular network of TwinnToInfect.
Silva-Santos (iMM) to the Stockinger and Hayday labs (Crick) have allowed access to unique models to study γδ T-cell responses in peripheral tissues. On the other hand, the Head of iMM’s Funding Office, Joana
Lamego, visited the Francis Crick Institute’s Grant Office for the first of a set of technical on-site training activities. Aiming to bring excellence also at the level of research support, these activities will
be focused on the discussion of the best practices in the support of international applications, and to exchange knowledge between the equivalent research support structures of the three TwinnToInfect
´ Figure 2. Participants in the TwinnToInfect kick-off meeting in Arrabida, Portugal April 2016. C 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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Figure 3. Establishing connections. Proposed staff exchanges between groups based at iMM Lisboa and their Crick and Pasteur partners.
partners. A staff exchange with Pasteur’s Grant Office is also planned for the near future. Moreover, staff from technical facilities at iMM – imaging/ microscopy, histopathology, flow cytometry and animal house – will also benefit from on-site training visits to Crick and Pasteur. A total of 35 scientific and 7 technical short-term/ on-site training visits are planned throughout the 3 years of the project. Of note, the short-term visits can last several months, thus allowing completion of particular scientific tasks or acquisition of methodological skills by students and post-docs. Another action undertaken in support of iMM’s young researchers was the launch of TwinnToInfect travel awards. Through a permanently open call, the applications are evaluated four times a year by a panel composed by PIs from Pasteur and Crick. The first call provided funds for two staff members to attend international meetings on innate lymphoid cells (EMBO-ILC, Berlin) and Trypanosoma infection (ParaFrap, Les Embiez, France).
Furthermore, a TwinnToInfect Seminar Series is being organised as to have an expert visit to iMM every other month. Pavel Tolar and Gitta Stockinger (Crick), and Gerard Eberl (Pasteur) are confirmed speakers in the next few months. The two main workshop-like events will focus on hot topics and cutting-edge technology in Immunology and Infection and will greatly benefit MSc and PhD students and post-doctoral fellows of the partner institutions. By taking place at iMM, these events will raise awareness of attendees from the partner institutes to consider iMM for their career paths. For iMMbased young researchers, the event will expose them to potential future supervisors at Crick or Pasteur. Finally, TwinnToInfect participants are strongly committed to disseminate their results in the press and in social media. The first newsletter has already been launched and we invite you to check the project’s website: http://twinntoinfect.eu. At a time when Europe faces important political challenges, TwinnToInfect’s spirit
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of collaboration and exchange between reference biomedical institutes in Portugal, France and the UK underscores how Science can build unique bridges founded on multiculturalism and the pursuit of knowledge. Acknowledgements: We thank Joana Lamego (iMM) for her relentless help with everything related to this project, including gathering information and revising this article; Maria Mota (iMM), Ana Cumano (Pasteur) and Gitta Stockinger (Crick) for coordination of the project; and all our colleagues joined the project. TwinnToInfect is funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 692022. Bruno Silva-Santos1 , James Di Santo2 , and Caetano Reis e Sousa3 1 Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisboa, Portugal 2 Institut Pasteur, Paris, France 3 The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
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