The way we grow up and interact with others shapes our life. Similarly, the immune system is shaped by the environment and interacts with multiple microorganisms that are referred as "microbiota". The microbiota living in the intestine metabolize the food to produce many essential biomolecules and release antigens that shape the immune system development and function. In parallel, the immune system imposes a selective pressure on the gut microbiota, a dialogue that leads to a host-microbial vital equilibrium, defined as the "normal" or "steady" state. However, this steady state is not necessarily favoring the host health and fitness, as immune-microbial interplay may "negatively" lead to increased disease susceptibility, an immune memory phenomenon termed "pathological imprinting".
Al Nabhani Lab studies how microbes-immune interplay during weaning influence the lifelong host health and the pathological imprinting. We are developing targeted approaches to modulate this interplay and generating innovative therapies for the treatment of autoimmunity, obesity, intestinal-inflammation-related digestive and neurodegenerative disorders. We are supported by the University of Bern, the Bern Hospital University and the European Research Council Starting Grant (ERC-StG).
