Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and asthma are chronic inflammatory disorders of the gut and airways, respectively, resulting from heterogeneous and still poorly understood interactions between the environment, genetics, and the immune system. The hygiene hypothesis proposed by Strachan in 1989 suggests that reduced early childhood exposure to environmental factors resulting from improved sanitation in developed countries may influence later susceptibility to these diseases.
By combining cellular and genome-wide approaches to define the mucosal early-life derived resident immune cells, Thomas Gensollen proposes to elucidate the impact and legacy of environmental exposure from infancy to adulthood, with the ultimate goal of developing therapeutic strategies for IBD and asthma.
Selected and ranked first in the international call for new group leaders conducted by the IPBS in 2022, Thomas Gensollen has been awarded a starting grant from the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM “Amorçage de jeunes équipes”) to develop his project at the IPBS. He will join the Institute in January 2023 to create his emerging research group.