Publications related to Médecine génomique et Maladies infectieuses [Genomic medicine and infectious diseases]

Microfluidic systems for infectious disease diagnostics

Microorganisms, encompassing both uni- and multicellular entities, exhibit remarkable diversity as omnipresent life forms in nature. They play a pivotal role by supplying essential components for sustaining biological processes across diverse ecosystems, i ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Host-Pathogen Interactions Through the Genomic Lens

Zhi Ming Xu

Hosts and pathogens are involved in a long-standing evolutionary arms race characterized by successive rounds of evolution. Specifically, while hosts evolve resistance against infections, pathogens adapt to re-establish virulence. Since the signatures of t ...

EPFL2023

Stay close, but not too close: aerial image analysis reveals patterns of social distancing in seal colonies

Devis Tuia, Benjamin Alexander Kellenberger

Many species aggregate in dense colonies. Species-specific spatial patterns provide clues about how colonies are shaped by various (a)biotic factors, including predation, temperature regulation or disease transmission. Using aerial imagery, we examined the ...

2023

Poloxamers Have Vaccine-Adjuvant Properties by Increasing Dissemination of Particulate Antigen at Distant Lymph Nodes

Myriam Isabelle Lamrayah

Vaccine technology is still facing challenges regarding some infectious diseases, which can be addressed by innovative drug delivery systems. In particular, nanoparticle-based vaccines combined with new types of adjuvants are actively explored as a platfor ...

MDPI2023

Viral Genetic Determinants of Prolonged Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection Among Infants in a Healthy Term Birth Cohort

Thomas Junier, Jacques Fellay, Dylan Lawless, Zhi Ming Xu

Background. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with acute respiratory infection. We sought to identify RSV variants associated with prolonged infection. ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2023

Associations of genetic and infectious risk factors with coronary heart disease

Roxane De La Harpe, Jacques Fellay, Flavia Aurelia Shoko Hodel, Christian Axel Wandall Thorball, Zhi Ming Xu

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the most pressing health problems of our time and a major cause of preventable death. CHD results from complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. Using multiplex serological testing for persistent ...

eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD2023

The interplay between human genetic variation, chronic inflammation and persistent infection: relevance for cardiovascular morbidity

Flavia Aurelia Shoko Hodel

Contemporary genomic approaches allow us to seek answers to biological questions that were previously out of reach. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous genetic polymorphisms associated with human diseases, providing new insight ...

EPFL2022

A Phylogeny-aware GWAS Framework to Correct for Heritable Pathogen Effects on Infectious Disease Traits

Jacques Fellay, Christian Axel Wandall Thorball

Infectious diseases are particularly challenging for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) because genetic effects from two organisms (pathogen and host) can influence a trait. Traditional GWAS assume individual samples are independent observations. Howev ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2022

Using population-specific add-on polymorphisms to improve genotype imputation in underrepresented populations

Jacques Fellay, Sina Rüeger, Zhi Ming Xu

Genome-wide association studies rely on the statistical inference of untyped variants, called imputation, to increase the coverage of genotyping arrays. However, the results are often suboptimal in populations underrepresented in existing reference panels ...

Public Library Science2022

Preexisting Heterogeneity of Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Expression Drives Differential Growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Macrophages

John McKinney, Ophélie Rutschmann, Chiara Toniolo

Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is initiated by the inhalation and implantation of bacteria in the lung alveoli, where they are phagocytosed by macrophages. Even a single bacterium may be sufficient to initiate infection. Thereafter, the clinical outc ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2022

A DNA biosensors-based microfluidic platform for attomolar real-time detection of unamplified SARS-CoV-2 virus

Igor Stefanini, Mounir Driss Mensi, Sandrine Gerber, Roberto Robortella, Céline Marie Anne Journot, Lucas Mayoraz, Perrine Agnes Edith Robin

The emergence of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) arose the need for rapid, accurate and massive virus detection methods to control the spread of infectious diseases. In this work, a device, deployable in non-medical environments, has been developed for the ...

2023

Virtual Safety Assistant: An Efficient Tool for Ensuring Safety During Covid-19 Pandemic

Daniel Thalmann

Using intelligent virtual assistants for controlling employee population in workspaces is a research area that remains unexplored. This paper presents a novel application of virtual humans to enforce Covid-19 safety measures in a corporate workplace. For t ...

SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG2022

How to: Diagnose inborn errors of intrinsic and innate immunity to viral, bacterial, mycobacterial, and fungal infections

Alessandro Borghesi

Background: Inborn errors of intrinsic and innate immunity constitute the focus of a growing research field that investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying susceptibility to infections previously not considered part of the spectrum of inborn errors o ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2022

Population structure and signals of local adaptation in Eugenia uniflora (Myrtaceae), a widely distributed species in the Atlantic Forest

Elia Vajana

Evolutionary diversity in species can arise in many ways, including local adaptation. Despite the global importance of tropical forest ecosystems, few studies have explored patterns of local adaptation in tropical tree species. We investigated population g ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2022

Genomic consequences of colonisation, migration and genetic drift in barn owl insular populations of the eastern Mediterranean

Nicolas Jean Philippe Guex, Eléonore Lavanchy

The study of insular populations was key in the development of evolutionary theory. The successful colonisation of an island depends on the geographic context, and specific characteristics of the organism and the island, but also on stochastic processes. A ...

2022

Host genomics of SARS-CoV-2 infection

Jacques Fellay, Christian Axel Wandall Thorball

SARS-CoV-2 infected a large fraction of humans in the past 2 years. The clinical presentation of acute infection varies greatly between individuals, ranging from asymptomatic or mild to life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia with multi-organ complications. De ...

SPRINGERNATURE2022

Multidisciplinary Investigation of the Gut-Brain Ecosystem in a Model of Alzheimer's Disease

Arielle Louise Planchette

The search for an understanding of the causal elements that lead to neurodegenerative diseases has motivated researchers for decades. Today, Alzheimer's disease is the most prevalent form of dementia and affects approximately fifty million people worldwide ...

EPFL2022

A Baseline Cellular Antiviral State Is Maintained by cGAS and Its Most Frequent Naturally Occurring Variant rs610913

Shuting Xu, Jacques Fellay, Christian Axel Wandall Thorball

Upon recognition of aberrantly located DNA, the innate immune sensor cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) activates stimulator of IFN genes (STING)/IFN regulatory factor (IRF)3-driven antiviral responses. In this study, we characterized the ability of a specific ...

American Association of Immunologists ; Oxford University Press2022

Interferon Lambda Delays the Emergence of Influenza Virus Resistance to Oseltamivir

Francesco Stellacci, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Chiara Medaglia

Influenza viruses are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. These air-borne pathogens are able to cross the species barrier, leading to regular seasonal epidemics and sporadic pandemics. Influenza viruses also possess a high genetic variabi ...

2021

The genetic architecture of complex human traits at the dawn of genomic medicine

Olivier Noël Marie Naret

The focus of the work presented in this thesis is the exploration of the genetic architecture of complex human traits - at the dawn of genomic medicine. The underlying mechanisms explaining the enormously polygenic nature of most human complex traits are ...

EPFL2021