Sheng Zhang

In mammals, Leishmania develop as strictly intracellular amastigotes within acidic parasitophorous vacuoles of host macrophages. These important innate immune cells are at the crossroads of various host responses including sensing of infections, induction of appropriate anti-microbial adaptive immune responses, or wound-healing processes. Leishmania has evolved strategies to hijack these essential cellular functions for their own benefit causing the immuno-pathologies associated with the different forms of leishmaniasis. At the core of these pathologies lies the parasite’s capacity to inhibit macrophage pro-inflammatory responses and to exploit host cell metabolic resources, such as fatty acid biosynthesis or arginine catabolism. Sheng ZHANG’s project will focus on identifying key factors of processes of Leishmania/macrophage interaction with aim to discover novel anti-leishmanial strategies. Before working at Institut Pasteur, Sheng ZHANG studied on inactivated poliovirus vaccine at Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd.