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Sterile inflammation results from the accidental activation of the innate immune system by one’s own molecules, in the absence of an infection. Such inflammation can occur when the cytosolic nucleic acid sensing receptors, which normally detect viral DNA or RNA, are triggered by our own nucleic acids, leading to unwanted innate immune activation. This happens, for example, in certain monogenic disorders. In our research we study the molecular mechanisms that prevent activation of the nucleic acid sensing machinery by our own RNA, and what happens if these mechanisms fail.
Dr. Annemarthe van der Veen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Immunology at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), where she studies how innate immune pathways control viral infection and sterile inflammation. She did her PhD research in the lab of Prof. Hidde Ploegh (Whitehead Institute, Cambridge USA) and her post-doc in the lab of Prof. Caetano Reis e Sousa (The Francis Crick Institute, London). Her team at LUMC studies how the RNA sensing pathway is activated by endogenous ligands, leading to innate immune activation in the absence of an infection. The consequent sterile inflammatory response contributes to auto-inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and impacts on antitumor immunity and tumor rejection.