Martinon Fabio, Associate Professor

Fabio Martinon received his PhD in 2003 from the University of Lausanne for his work on the characterization of the Inflammasome in the laboratory of Jürg Tschopp. After a short post-doctoral fellowship in Jürg Tschopp’s laboratory, he moved in 2006 to the laboratory of Laurie Glimcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he investigated the link between inflammatory programs and the endoplasmic reticulum stress response. In August 2010 he joined the Department of Biochemistry as Assistant Professor. His current research focuses on the characterization of signaling pathways emerging from the endoplasmic reticulum.

Cellular stress is a hallmark of severe pathogenic insults that leads to the activation of adaptation programs aimed at restoring tissue homeostasis. This state of reversible malfunction is defined by the notion of stress. Tissue stress and malfunction promotes low-grade inflammation that helps the tissue to cope with damage and restore tissue function. This low-grade inflammation also termed para-inflammation illustrates how stress and possibly stress response pathways can regulate immunity. A variety of diseases are characterized by inflammation and cellular homeostasis deregulation including viral infections, cancer and autoinflammatory syndromes. However, the mechanisms and the role of these stress responses and their impact on the inflammatory pathways are poorly understood. We developed a research program aimed at identifying stress-signaling pathways that regulate inflammation. Our research is aimed at characterizing the stress-inflammation connection in autoinflammatory diseases and cancer.