Genetic and Non-Genetic Inflammation Networks in Major Human Diseases
Inflammation is an adaptive response and integral part of animal biology against a myriad of factors including infection, trauma, and disease. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the cellular and molecular events that are involved in the acute inflammatory response to infection and, to a lesser extent, tissue injury and chronic inflammation.
Numerous studies have shown how the clinical manifestation of inflammation can also be pathological and prime the tissue niche for the progression of myriad complex diseases such as cancer, microbial resistance, autoimmune disorders, and gut microbiota dysbiosis.
Interestingly, several genome-wide association studies (GWAS), whole-exome sequencing (WES), and single cell-based technologies have highlighted how rare genetic mutations or variations modulate the susceptibility of an individual to infectious pathogens, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), by influencing pathological inflammation at a genetic level.
In addition to the genetic determinants, inflammation can also be triggered by multiple non-genetic factors including the microbiome, toxic compounds, diet, and stress, which affect the epigenome and secretome of the tissue microenvironment.
Altogether, these genetic and non-genetic networks in inflammatory diseases have long been established in several clinical and epidemiological studies. However, we still lack a significant understanding of causal links and strategic explanations for the interaction between genome, epigenome, microbiome, metabolome, and inflammatome. Therefore, we need a cohesive approach focusing on both genetic and non-genetic determinants to curb pathological inflammation.
Guest advisors
Dr. Yan Ma(National Eye Institute, USA)
Dr. Yan Ma is a research associate at the National Institutes of Health, USA. Since November 2022, her research has focused on studying spatial processing neural networks in mice within virtual environments with the objective of uncovering the fundamental principles of spatial cognition and the cause of related neurological disorders.
Prof. Qinan Yin(Henan University of Science and Technology, China)
Dr. Qinan Yin earned his Ph.D. at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and received a Doctor of Medicine by research at the University of Freiburg in Germany. He came to the NIH Clinical Center in 2015 as research scientist and is appointed head of the precision medicine laboratory at Henan University of Science and Technology. Dr. Qinan Yin has been actively involved in blood group genotyping, immunogenetics in hematopoietic stem cell and identification of cancer biomarker.
Dr. Gayan Bamunuarachchi(Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA)
Dr. Gayan Bamunuarachchi earned his Ph.D. in comparative biomedical science from Oklahoma State University in 2020. In 2021, he joined Washington University at St. Louis as a postdoc. His work there includes developing serological screening assays to test the prevalence of vector-borne viruses in humans and wild animals, understanding the biology of emerging vector-borne viruses, and testing anti-viral drugs and novel vaccines against emerging viruses.