Building Bridges in Leukocyte Biology Webinar Series

Through volunteer efforts, SLB will be offering a monthly series of innovative talks spanning a width breadth of interests related to the field. Registration is free for ALL. On-demand recordings are available for members only.

Our next speaker will be Andres Hidalgo, from Yale University, Immunology Department who will present "Understanding Neutrophils" on May 27, 2026, 1pm eastern. This session will be recorded.

Register now

Andres obtained his BSc and PhD at Universidad Autonoma in Madrid, Spain. His research interests have focused on the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which innate immune cells, and their hematopoietic precursors, contribute to organismal physiology and pathology. As a postdoctoral trainee Andres developed and used live imaging modalities to study acute inflammatory disease and discovered the receptors that mediate early neutrophil recruitment, as well as intravascular signals that cause vascular occlusion and severe symptoms in sickle cell disease. In his first independent position, he developed live imaging technologies and applied them to the study of thrombo-inflammation and its dramatic consequences in several organs, including the lung, brain and heart. His team discovered new functions for innate immune cells and demonstrated that circadian rhythms in the bone marrow are entrained in part by neutrophils entering this organ. They extended these studies to define the immune circadian clockworks that control neutrophil migration, transcription and release of toxic mediators, as well as those that underlie circadian defense and inflammation. More recently, the lab has identified new sources of heterogeneity of neutrophils across tissues and inside vessels and demonstrated that pulmonary neutrophils are endowed with unique transcriptional programs and functions. In Andres' new position as Full Professor at Yale University, his lab aims to define the fundamental principles guiding innate immune distribution, phenotypic specialization, and functional states and their impact in tissue physiology, including inflammation, infection, regeneration after an insult, and cancer. 

Look for these talks lined up for the future...

  • Carlos Rosales, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico - June 24th, 2026, 1pm eastern
  • Ronen Sumagin, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine - July 22nd, 2026, 1pm eastern
  • Chyna Lovell, MASS General / Harvard - August 26th, 2026, 1pm
  • Manjari Trivedi, Harvard Medical School - October 28th, 2026, 1pm eastern
  • Amali Samarasinghe, UW Madison - November 18th, 2026, 1pm eastern

If you would like to present at a future SLB Building Bridges webinar series, please contact Sofia De Oliveira  at [email protected]. See below for the full Building Bridges Webinar Series Mission.

Past Building Bridges Webinars available on-demand for SLB Members (login and membership required):

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  • Shruti Rawal, BWH Harvard "A microRNA mediated regulation of macrophage immunometabolism in diabetes-associated atherosclerosis"
  • Stefan Oehlers, A*STAR ID Labs, Singapore "Differential subversion of host immune signalling by tuberculous and non-tuberculous mycobacteria"
  • Margarida Santos Saraiva,  i3S- Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde "Understanding tuberculosis pathogenesis and immune responses through the lens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis" (live only session)
  • Silvia Uriarte, University of Louisville "Microbial Manipulation: Neutrophils Under Siege" (live only session)
  • Carmen Gloria Feijoo, Universidad Andres Bello “Swimming into Neutrophil Heterogeneity: Lessons from Zebrafish”
  • Samarth Hegde, Icahn School of Medicine; Hess Center for Science and Medicine, "Back to the Roots: Myeloid progenitor dysregulation fuels immunosuppressive macrophages in cancer" (live only session)
  • Maria Casanova-Acebes, CNIO, "TREMMing on lung metastatic immunity" (live only session)
  • Marta Mastrogiovanni, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, "Dissecting the role of embryogenic inflammation on Clonal Hematopoiesis"
  • Juliana Zuliani, Universidade Federal de Rondônia "Cr-LAAO, an L-amino acid oxidase from Calloselasma rhodostoma venom, induces FPR-dependent vital NETosis in human neutrophils"
  • Laurel Hind, University of Colorado Boulder "Inflammation-on-a-Chip: Redefining How We Study Immune Responses"
  • Loic Rolas, Queen Mary University of London "Investigating vascular ageing and its impact on immune cell function: When neutrophils get mad!"
  • Collins Osei-Sarpong, Institute of Experimental Pathology "Hepatic neutrophil extracellular traps limit dissemination of gut-derived products" (live only session)
  • Hawa Racine Thiamm, Standford University, "Cellular Biophysics of Neutrophils – Learning from NETosis" (live only session)
  • Irene Salinas, University of New Mexico, "Granulocyte recruitment in the African lungfish skin during estivation"
  • Melissa Ng, Singapore Immunology Network, "Deterministic reprogramming of neutrophils within tumors"
  • Savini Thrikawala, Clemson University,"Glucocorticoids suppress neutrophil control of Aspergillus hyphal growth in zebrafish larvae"
  • Prashanth Thevkar Nagesh, BIDMC/Harvard Medical School, "In vivo Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibition attenuates alcohol-associated liver disease by regulating granulopoiesis."
  • Elsa Bou Ghanem, University at Buffalo, "Changes in Neutrophil-pneumococcal Interactions During Aging"
  • Juan de Dios Ruiz Rosado, Nationwide Children’s Hospital “Phagocyte NADPH Oxidase: Fine-Tuning Neutrophil's Antimicrobial and Inflammatory Arsenal Against Uropathogenic E. coli”.
  • Aminata Coulibaly, West Virginia University "Using Neutrophils to Modulate Brain Output"
  • Elizabeth Wohlfert, University at Buffalo "Muscling through Chronic Infection"

    Building Bridges in Leukocyte Biology Webinar

Mission
To provide a safe platform to highlight the research done by 1) trainees, 2) scientists from underrepresented groups in the field (please check footnote *) and 3) scientists with major caregiver roles at home that restrict their travel to conferences limiting their careers (young children, dependent person, etc). We also seek to keep the leukocyte community engaged in active and fruitful scientific discussions between conferences.
Vision
Conferences have a limited number of slots for presentations which drastically limits the amount of good science that can be shown and discussed in these venues. Trainees and young faculty from underrepresented groups in the field have less chances to be invited or selected to present their work at conferences and therefore their science has less visibility. We want to provide a way to give visibility to our members in the leukocyte field.In addition, we want to help build a dynamic and engaged leukocyte community to advance the field, this webinar series will also promote networking, collaborations and sharing of resources amongst the labs working with different leukocytes on different fields.
Webinar format
• Monthly meeting on ZOOM - 4th Wednesday of the month (tentative: 12:00 pm EST/9:00 am PST)
• 1h (5 min introduction, 45 minutes presentation ,10 minutes discussion)
Please note that presentations WILL BE RECORDED (with speaker permission), placed at SLB archive and available for all members to view at any time. Webinars will be promoted on the SLB website, email list and social media.

If you are a SLB member that fits the eligibility criteria and are interested in presenting at BBinLB webinar series, please submit the following materials to [email protected]:
• Abstract
• CV or Biosketch
• Provide specific information about eligibility (trainees, scientist from underrepresented groups in the field, and/or scientist with major caregiver roles).