Stäger Simona
Immunology and parasitology
Institut national de la recherche scientifique
Canada
Biography
Dr. Simona Stager graduated from the University of Bern in Switzerland with a DVM and a Ph.D. in Immunoparasitology. After her doctorate, she went to London to do two postdoctoral fellowships: the first, in Professor Deborah Smith's lab at Imperial College; the second in the laboratory of Professor Paul Kaye at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. During these courses, she worked on various aspects of the immunology of Leishmania . She then joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2005. In July 2011, she joined the INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier.
Research Interest
The laboratory studies the immune response to the parasite Leshmania donovani in a mouse model. In the present, we are pursuing two projects: 1. Development of CD8 T cell responses in mice infected with L donovani One is particularly interested in the initial stages of priming, induction and maintenance of effector T cells and generation of memory cells. 2. The interaction between B cells and Leishmania Leishmania donovani is a causative agent of visceral leishmania (LV), a zoonotic disease, which is potentially fatal in humans. The experimental LV model is ideal for studying the dynamics of T and B cell responses in vivo in a context of chronic infectious disease.
Publications
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Paun, A., Joshi, T., Pitha, PM, and Stäger , S. (2011). IRF5 deficiency severely impaired development of T helper 1 responses following Leishmania donovani infection. PLoS Pathogens , 7 (1): 1001246.
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Bankoti, R., Gupta, K. Levchenko, A., and Stäger , S. (2012). Marginal area B-cells regulate antigen-specific T-cell responses during infection. Journal of Immunology , 188 (8): 3961-71.
