Fawzi Aoudjit

Dr. Fawzi Aoudjit is a senior scientist at the CHU de Québec Research Centre and a professor at the department of microbiology-infectiology and immunology of the Laval University School of Medicine. His research program seeks to understand the mechanisms controlling T cell activity in tissues during inflammatory/autoimmune diseases and cancer, with a focus on the role of the adhesion molecules that bind to extracellular matrix, the integrins. T cells play an important role in the adaptive immune response, but are also critical to the development of inflammatory diseases, and could become malignant and lead to cancer. Recent work by Dr. Aoudjit’s group significantly contributed to understand the importance of extracellular matrix-binding integrins in the regulation of T cell activation and the development of immune response. Along these lines, Dr. Aoudjit and his team have shown that the collagen-binding integrin alpha2beta1 is an important pathway in Th17 cell activation and in the development of arthritis. These studies were highlighted in the news bulletin ‘Immune regulation news’. Dr. Aoudjit received several acknowledgements for his work among which, the New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, in 2004.

The current objectives aim to

1. understand how collagen receptors such as integrins and discoïdin domain receptors interact to promote the survival and migration of T cell subsets in inflammatory tissues; two critical T cell functions necessary to the development of inflammation, as well as to mounting an anti-cancer immune response.
2. determine the role of integrins in the development of lymphoblastic leukemia by investigating their implication in the tissue dissemination of leukemic T cells, and in their resistance to chemotherapy; two cancer features that limit the efficacy of anti-cancer treatments.

The implication of these receptors in the development of inflammatory diseases and cancer is being investigated in human T cell models, in preclinical models of autoimmune diseases, leukemia, and in models of anti-cancer immunity, as well as at the clinical level with the collaboration of clinicians.

In addition to advancing knowledge, these studies aim at the discovery of novel therapeutic targets and treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.