Victor Appay
DR - Inserm
Vulnerability and ageing of the immune system
About Victor Appay
I am research director at the INSERM, and co-head of the “Vulnerability and Ageing of the Immune System” team, INSERM U1303 within the ImmunoConcept unit.
After receiving an engineer diploma in Biotechnology at the Ecole Superieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg (France) in 1997, I joined the department of Prof Andrew McMichael at the University of Oxford (England) where I obtained a PhD in Immunology in 2001 under the supervision of Prof Sarah Rowland-Jones. Following postdoctoral experiences both in Oxford and Lausanne (Switzerland), I established my research team in Paris (France) in 2005, before moving to Bordeaux in 2020.
The study of cellular immunity has been the central theme of my research over the last 25 years. My work has initially focused on the characterization of human T cells in various infectious contexts, particularly HIV-1 infection. My findings have provided refined mechanistic insights into the workings and induction of effective CD8+ T cell responses against HIV, and into the role of immune activation in the development of premature immunosenescence during HIV infection. In recent years, I concentrate increasing efforts on the study of immune ageing in the older population, with the aim to provide advanced understanding in the emerging field of immunogerontology.
My research / PhD / Post-doc / projects
Principal research focus
- Immune aging in humans
- T-cell correlates of efficacy
- Pathogenesis of viral infections
- T-cell based therapy and vaccines
Our aim is to uncover impairments of naïve αβ and γδ T-cells affecting effective priming with old age, and to develop strategies to improve T-cell priming efficacy in this setting of ‘compromised’ immunity. These studies are developed in two infectious contexts : response to CMV infection using the cohort of kidney transplant recipients followed in Bordeaux Hospital, and cellular and innate immune response to SARS-Cov-2 using the Bordeaux hospital COLCOV cohort. We also investigate the link between immunosenescence, inflammation and vaccine efficacy in old people, owing to our participation to the synergistic efforts of several national and international partners gathered within a European Union funded Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) consortium, called “Vaccines and infectious diseases in the ageing population” (VITAL).
Contact
- vappay@immuconcept.org