Lab Information
Silvia Vidal (PhD)
InvestigatorMcGill University
Department of Human Genetics (McGill)
Research Profile
Keywords
Mouse genetic models • virus infections • innate immunity • complex traits analysis • primary human cellsResearch Interests
My research focuses on why certain individuals are extremely vulnerable to a viral infection and develop severe diseases whereas others remain unharmed when exposed to the same pathogen. Herpes simplex encephalitis, influenza pneumonia, and viral myocarditis are severe but relatively rare occurrences of infections with viruses that are common in the general population. My laboratory uses specialized mouse genetic models that replicate human diseases to parse genes, proteins, and cells of the host that are implicated in the infection process. We have found proteins involved in virus recognition, signal transduction kinases, and transcription factors, which are critical to the outcome of infection. With this information, we search for small molecules that target those mechanisms to improve virus-induced pathologies.Team Members
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Latest Publications
- Valenzuela, A. R., Turner, M., Markarian, N., Lachance-Brais, C., Hanrahan, J., Vali, H., Vidal, S. & Mongeau, L. (2024). Design, infectability, and transcriptomic analysis of transregionally differentiated and scalable lung organoids derived from adult bronchial cells. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.
- Li, R., Galindo, C. C., Davidson, D., Guo, H., Zhong, M.-C., Qian, J., Li, B., Ruzsics, Z., Lau, C. M., O'Sullivan, T. E., Vidal, S. M., Sun, J. C. & Veillette, A. (2024). Suppression of adaptive NK cell expansion by macrophage-mediated phagocytosis inhibited by 2B4-CD48. Cell reports, vol. 43, p. 113800.
- Rufyikiri, A. S., Martinez, R., Addo, P. W., Wu, B.-S., Yousefi, M., Malo, D., Orsat, V., Vidal, S. M., Fritz, J. H., MacPherson, S. & Lefsrud, M. (2024). Germicidal efficacy of continuous and pulsed ultraviolet-C radiation on pathogen models and SARS-CoV-2. Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology, vol. 23, p. 339-354.
- Kim, J. E. J., Tung, L. T., Jiang, R. R., Yousefi, M., Liang, Y., Malo, D., Vidal, S. M. & Nijnik, A. (2023). Dysregulation of B lymphocyte development in the SKG mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis. Immunology, vol. 170, p. 553-566.
- AbdElFatah, T., Jalali, M., Yedire, S. G., I Hosseini, I., Del Real Mata, C., Khan, H., Hamidi, S. V., Jeanne, O., Siavash Moakhar, R., McLean, M., Patel, D., Wang, Z., McKay, G., Yousefi, M., Nguyen, D., Vidal, S. M., Liang, C. & Mahshid, S. (2023). Nanoplasmonic amplification in microfluidics enables accelerated colorimetric quantification of nucleic acid biomarkers from pathogens. Nature nanotechnology, vol. 18, p. 922-932.
- Xu, Z., Choi, J.-H., Dai, D. L., Luo, J., Ladak, R. J., Li, Q., Wang, Y., Zhang, C., Wiebe, S., Liu, A. C. H., Ran, X., Yang, J., Naeli, P., Garzia, A., Zhou, L., Mahmood, N., Deng, Q., Elaish, M., Lin, R., Mahal, L. K., Hobman, T. C., Pelletier, J., Alain, T., Vidal, S. M., Duchaine, T., Mazhab-Jafari, M. T., Mao, X., Jafarnejad, S. M. & Sonenberg, N. (2022). SARS-CoV-2 impairs interferon production via NSP2-induced repression of mRNA translation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 119, p. e2204539119.
- Markarian, N. M., Galli, G., Patel, D., Hemmings, M., Nagpal, P., Berghuis, A. M., Abrahamyan, L. & Vidal, S. M. (2022). Identifying Markers of Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants in Patients With Secondary Immunodeficiency. Frontiers in microbiology, vol. 13, p. 933983.
- Mindt, B. C., Krisna, S. S., Duerr, C. U., Mancini, M., Richer, L., Vidal, S. M., Gerondakis, S., Langlais, D. & Fritz, J. H. (2021). The NF-κB Transcription Factor c-Rel Modulates Group 2 Innate Lymphoid Cell Effector Functions and Drives Allergic Airway Inflammation. Frontiers in immunology, vol. 12, p. 664218.
- Mancini, M., Charbonneau, B., Langlais, D. & Vidal, S. M. (2021). The c-Rel transcription factor limits early interferon and neuroinflammatory responses to prevent herpes simplex encephalitis onset in mice. Scientific reports, vol. 11, p. 21171.
- Xu, G., van Bruggen, R., Gualtieri, C. O., Moradin, N., Fois, A., Vallerand, D., De Sa Tavares Russo, M., Bassenden, A., Lu, W., Tam, M., Lesage, S., Girouard, H., Avizonis, D. Z., Deblois, G., Prchal, J. T., Stevenson, M., Berghuis, A., Muir, T., Rabinowitz, J., Vidal, S. M., Fodil, N. & Gros, P. (2020). Bisphosphoglycerate Mutase Deficiency Protects against Cerebral Malaria and Severe Malaria-Induced Anemia. Cell reports, vol. 32, p. 108170.
