PATHOGENOMICS

Thanks to our "innate immunity" - a system which is part of our natural biological makeup - we are able to withstand a daily onslaught of tens of thousands of potentially pathogenic microbes in air, food and water, and in our interactions with other people and animals. But our innate immunity can sometimes get over-stimulated, leading to inflammation of tissue and even sepsis - a deadly infection of blood or tissue. Understanding the balance between infection resolution and inflammation is the goal of the new Pathogenomics of Innate Immunity Genome Canada Competition III project... The Pathogenomics of Innate Immunity, or PI2, project is a Genome Canada-funded project studying the mammalian innate immune system - the body's first line of defense against a range of bacteria, viral and other pathogens. Through the use of microarrays, mouse embryonic stem cell knockouts, siRNA, and bioinformatics, the project's aim is to understand key pathways and decision points in this important..