Alexandre Boissonnas

Background

About Alexandre Boissonnas

Our research program focused on the dynamic of the myeloid cell response, including monocytes, macrophages and neutrophils to various physio-pathological contexts. Myeloid cells represent a central component of the inflammatory response. They could be divided into a fast circulating, short-lived, and efficiently mobilizable compartment upon inflammation (monocytes and neutrophils) and a long-lived tissue-resident compartment (macrophages) present in every tissue niche, allowing permanent immune-surveillance and regulation of tissue homeostasis. Recent advances in the knowledge of the developmental origin and functional diversity of those subsets have considerably challenged the field. Considering their network is organized to cover every place of the body and are the fastest cells being recruited, they have to be somehow and to some extent, involved in any pathology from the initiation of inflammation to its resolution including elimination of the danger, cleaning, and tissue repair. Understanding the biology of the myeloid compartment and its role in inflammatory diseases represents a growing field of investigation worldwide and for many clinical applications. Our research characterize mononuclear phagocytes through the mapping of their real time behaviour based on an innovative approach of multiphoton imaging in steady state and inflammatory conditions specifically in tumor context and in during sepsis. We develop the most recent technologies of multimodal non-linear optical microscopy including multiphoton excitation (MPEF), second (SHG), third (THG) and sum-frequency (SFG) generations and coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering (CARS) allowing the visualization of tissue structures (collagen, myelin sheats and fat) with no need for specific fluorescent probes. Overall, according to the incredible trafficking pattern, speed of action (within minutes to years), and functional plasticity of the different myeloid subsets, it is a real challenge to study them. We believe that we are able to overcome most of these limitations by providing a complete overview from fundamental biology to therapeutic strategies of the spatio-temporal myeloid response to inflammatory insults, including both in vivo preclinical models and ex vivo human biology and optimizing up-to-date single cell “omique” technologies.