Anne-Sophie Bergot The Australasian Society for Immunology 2017 Annual Scientific Meeting

Anne-Sophie Bergot

Dr Anne-Sophie Bergot, B.Sc., M.Sc., PhD Anne-Sophie did her PhD in Paris, France, at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Prof. David Klatzmann lab. She showed that a subpopulation of regulatory T cells (Tregs) was constantly activated by self-antigens and recognized self-tumor antigens when a tumor was present, leading to their rapid reactivation, the suppression of the conversion of naïve T cells to effector T cells, and the protection of the tumor cells. She then moved to Brisbane, Australia, where she undertook her first postdoc under the supervision of Prof. Ian Frazer, who is internationally renowned for the co-creation of the technology for the cervical cancer vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix. She carried out a highly successful and independent program of work on regulatory mast cells inducing tolerance to papillomavirus-associated cancerous lesions in mice. She then joined Prof Ranjeny Thomas, recently awarded member of the Order of Australia, to work on the immunotherapy of autoimmune diseases such as T1D and SpA. In T1D her pre-clinical data showed that antigen-specific liposome-based immunotherapy promoted Treg protection of hyperglycemic NOD mice through bystander suppression of third-party CD8 T cells. In SpA, she is focusing on the interaction between the gut microbiome, the immune system, and the development of arthritic inflammation.