Veronique Witko-Sarsat

Véronique Witko-Sarsat, Director of Research at INSERM (Institut National pour la Santé et la Recherche Médicale) and Group leader in the Department of Immunology, Inflammation and Infection, Cochin Institute, Paris France. Working in the topic of neutrophils for more than 20 years, she is a key opinion leader in the field. Her laboratory focuses on neutrophils in autoimmune vasculitis and other chronic inflammatory diseases linked to systemic inflammation. Her team has studied neutrophils in autoimmune vasculitis associated with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody and has uncovered new functions for the autoantigen, proteinase 3, in the clearance of apoptotic cells. Proteinase 3 expressed at the surface of apoptotic neutrophils is considered a “danger signal” by macrophages. When the balance between apoptosis and survival is disrupted, it may lead to uncontrolled inflammation. My research shows that cytosolic Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) is a key regulator of this balance. Along those lines, we also have shown that PCNA is linked to the NADPH oxidase and helps to regulate neutrophil activation and, more broadly, inflammation. Her main interest is to identify key mechanisms that controls neutrophil activation and to target them to perform translational research in inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, vasculitis, bronchopneumonia, cystic fibrosis, cancer and COVID-19.