Sébastien Talbot

Abstract

Pain neurons control cancer immunosurveillance

Under the mentorship of Dr Rejean Couture, Dr Talbot obtained is PhD in Physiology from the Université de Montreal (2012). His thesis focused on the role of CNS immune cells in priming diabetic pain neuropathy. Next, he joined Dr. Clifford Woolf’s lab at the Neurobiology center of Harvard Medical School to study the crosstalk between pain neurons and adaptive immune cells in the context of allergic inflammation.

Dr Talbot started is independent work at Université de Montreal (2017-2022) and has since then obtained a Tenured Associate Professorship at Queen’s University (Canada). He also holds the Canada Research Chair in Neuro-Immunology. He is also cross-appointed as a group leader at Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) where he holds a Wallenberg Academy Fellowship. His work is supported by a CRS, CFI, CRC, CIHR, NSERC, NIH (R01, co-I), and NRFR

His group combines OMICs technique with optogenetics, tissue clearance and imaging and chemogenetics. They aim at defining a framework of the neuro-immune interplay at the system level, to decipher how and which sub-population of sensory neurons controls innate and adaptive responses, and to develop new targeted therapies for resolution of chronic inflammatory diseases.

Specifically, his investigation focusses on the role of nociceptor neurons in the control of cancer immunosurveillance. Dr Talbot will present data unraveling the transcriptome of tumor-innervating neurons as well as their ability to regulate cDC1 tumor antigen trafficking. Dr Talbot hope that blocking tumor innervating neurons will safeguard the host immune system anti-tumor immunity.