About
23rd of October 2025 at Institut Pasteur | Paris
The LabEx Milieu Intérieur is sponsoring the EFIS Sex Differences group conference.
Keynote Speakers:
- Dr. Kate Docking: is a social historian of medicine and gender in XXth century Europe. She is a Research Associate at the University of Hamburg, and part of the European Research Council project “Taming the European Leviathan: The Legacy of Post-War Medicine and the Common Good”, having previously studied at the University of Kent and the University of Cambridge.
- Prof. Petter Brodin: is a physician and scientist whose research centers on understanding variability in the human immune system in both health and disease. His work explores the origins of these differences early in life and examines how microbes influence immune development. Currently, his lab is investigating how sex hormones modulate the immune system in response to changing physiological needs across a lifespan.
Resgitration ans abstract submission is now closed.
Agenda – EFIS Sex Differences in Immunity Congress
8h30 – 9h15 Welcome coffee
9h15 – 9h30 Welcome and Intro – Tal Pacht and Darragh Duffy
Opendarragh Ding Keynote
● 9h30 – Kate Docking – University of Hamburg
Perceptions of Sex Differences in Twentieth Century Medicine: Prevention and Treatment
Session 1 – 10h-11h – Translational studies of Sex-Immune Differences
● 10h – Heather Cross – University College London
Transcriptomic analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells reveals immune and metabolic pathways associated with both puberty-blockade and gender-affirming sex hormone therapy in young transgender individuals
● 10h20 – Charlotte Hansen – Bernhard Nocht Institute for tropical medicine
Sex Shapes CD64 Expression and CD64⁺ Mig-Mo-DC Responses to Vaccination
● 10h40 – Sneha Kanungo – LIMES Institute, University of Bonn
Immune Sex Differences in Blood Transcriptome are Shaped by Environmental Factors in Healthy Tanzanians 11h – 20’ Coffee break
Session 2 – 11h20 to 12h20h – Sex Differences in Tissue Immunity
● 11h20 – Elizabeth Rosser – University College London
Sex chromosome and hormonal regulation of sexually dimorphic B cell responses in health and autoimmunity
● 11h40 – Madeleine Bunders – University Medical Center Hamburg- Eppendorf
ATRX mediates sex-differences in restriction of human viruses
● 12h00 – Laura Ramirez Finn – Institut Cochin
Understanding the early immune response between the sexes during urinary tract infections
Lunch with Poster sessions: 12h20 to 13h50
Session 3 – 13h50 to 15h10 – Sex Differences in Infection & Vaccination
● 13h50 – Joan Escrivà Font – Lund University
Anti-androgen enzalutamide impairs severe COVID-19 recovery in a sex-specific manner.
● 14h10 – Devin Kenney – Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Sexually Dimorphic Lung Immune Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection
● 14h30 – Marwan Sharawy – Institut Pasteur
Cell-Type-Specific Age and Sex Effects on Gene Regulation in Immune Responses to Viruses
● 14h50 – Valentino D’Onofrio – Ghent University & Ghent University Hospital
Sex-specific innate immune responses after influenza vaccination explain reactogenicity
15h10 – 20’ Coffee break
Session 4 – 15h40 – Sex differences in immunity throughout life
● 15h40 – Anthony Bertrand – Institut Pasteur
Identification of transcriptional regulatory networks underlying variable human immune responses between the sexes
● 16h00 – Stefania Del Prete – German Cancer Research Center – DKFZ Heidelberg
Sex-Bias Immune Aging and its Interplay with X-Inactivation Escape Genes at Single-Cell Level
● 16h20 – Juliana Gonçalves – NOVA Medical School
Improving healthspan in the elderly through modulation of the hormonal-immune axis
● 16h40 – Alisier Malard – BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT)
Ligand-independent Estrogen receptor beta signalling plays an anti-inflammatory role in both female and male Th17 polarized cells
Closing Keynote
● 17h – Petter Brodin – Karolinska Institutet and UKRI MRC (London, UK)
Dynamic regulation of human immunity by sex-hormones during gender-affirming hormone therapy
17h30-19h30 Poster session with wine & cheese