Delineate TSLP-driven immune tolerogenic axis in the skin
Grantee: Mei Li, Research Director, Team leader, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, France
Amount: DKK 3,994,813
Grant category: Research Grants in open competition
Year: 2025
Geography: France
The skin is the body’s primary barrier against physical insults and microbial pathogens. It also functions as an active immune organ, both in its homeostatic state and during inflammation. Understanding of mechanisms underlying cutaneous immunity and how they contribute to tolerogenic or immunogenic signaling pathways, is crucial to develop therapeutic strategies for different skin diseases. For example, efforts have been made to develop immunotherapy to induce immune tolerance in allergies and autoimmune disorders. Mei Li’s study is based on recent identification of a key regulatory pathway in promoting skin immune tolerance. Mei Li and her team’s objective is to delineate the nature and function of this new regulatory pathway across AD, allergies and vitiligo to develop proof-of-concepts to raise new immunotherapy strategies. The mechanisms and targets discovered in this study may also be applicable to other inflammatory skin diseases.
Interaction of Cutibacterium acnes (C. acnes) and the sebaceous gland in acne: Impact on the therapeutic management of acne
Grantee: Brigitte Dréno, Professor, Nantes Université, CHU Nantes, INSERM, IRS2/INCIT, UMR 1302, France
Amount: DKK 3,370,500
Grant category: Research Grants in open competition
Year: 2025
Geography: France
The main goal of Brigitte Dréno’s project is to determine how the beneficial bacterium, Cutibacterium acnes (C. acnes), that naturally lives on human skin causes acne. Brigitte and her team hypothesize that changes in amount and types of oils (called sebum) secreted by skin oil glands may play a part in turning the beneficial C. acnes to disease-causing bacteria. Sebum profile changes may make C. acnes grow and behave differently, and cause skin inflammation. One way that sebum changes make C. acnes cause inflammation may be by extracellular vesicles, which are very small sacs released by the bacteria. Since androgen, a type of sex hormone, is known to increase sebum, medications that block androgens are currently used to treat acne. Thus, another aim of this project is to see if blocking androgens can manage acne by targeting sebum profile changes that affect inflammation caused by C. acnes. The project will allow Brigitte and the team to gain more knowledge on how acne develops and justify the use of androgen blockers as treatment.