December 9th at 14-15 (Finland time)

Virtual event

Flyer

Pärt Peterson, University of Tartu, Estonia: Autoantibodies to type 1 interferons in Aire-deficient hosts

Register for the Immunology Seminar Series email list to get calendar invitation to the online seminar: https://link.webropolsurveys.com/S/D29C32AA6E8A2F7A

Host: Professor Riitta Lahesmaa ( rilahes@utu.fi )

Immunology seminar series is jointly organised by the Finnish Society for Immunology, InFLAMES Flagship and Turku Bioscience. For further information contact Anne Lahdenperä  ( ankahy@utu.fi ) or Riitta Lahesmaa ( rilahes@utu.fi ), University of Turku.

Pärt Peterson is a Professor of Molecular Immunology and Head of the Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He defended his PhD in molecular immunology in 1996 at the University of Tampere, Finland and he has been a Fellow of the Finnish Academy, The Wellcome Trust International Senior Fellow, and the Research Professor of the Academy of Estonia. Since 2008, he has been a Professor of Molecular Immunology at the University of Tartu, Estonia. Year 2023 he was elected member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.
Pärt Peterson leads Molecular Pathology Research Group at the University of Tartu. His main focus is to understand the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation in cells involved in immune response and tolerance. His research interest has focused on the Central immune tolerance and the function of the Autoimmune Regulator (AIRE) gene in the thymus. His second research direction is Immunopathology of APECED (or APS1) disease, in which patients develop multiple endocrine autoimmune disorders and chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis. He co-discovered and made initial characterization of the DNA methyltransferase 3-like (DNMT3L) gene, a regulator of DNA methylation and epigenetic imprinting. Pärt Peterson group studies the role of autoantibodies to type 1 interferon and other cytokines, and their presence among autoimmune patients and in aged individuals and also age-related changes in old individuals to understand the molecular and cellular drivers of these processes. They combine molecular and cellular approaches with immunology tools and use genome-wide transcriptomic and epigenetic analyses, also single-cell approaches on immune cells.

Selected publications:

Stoljar A, Zarodniuk M, Bichele R, Armulik EH, Haljasorg U, Humeau R, Besnard M, Haljasmägi L, Tserel L, Peltser M, Salumets A, Kekäläinen E, Kisand K, Guillonneau C, Laan M, Peterson P. Impaired Aire-dependent IFN signaling in the thymus precedes the protective autoantibodies to IFNα. J Exp Med. 2025 Jul 7;222(7):e20241403. doi: 10.1084/jem.20241403.

Giraud M, Peterson P. The Autoimmune Regulator (AIRE) Gene, The Master Activator of Self-Antigen Expression in the Thymus. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2025;1471:199-221. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-77921-3_7..

Laan M, Salumets A, Klein A, Reintamm K, Bichele R, Peterson H, Peterson P. Post-Aire Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cells and Hassall’s Corpuscles as Inducers of Tonic Pro-Inflammatory Microenvironment. Front Immunol. 2021 Apr 2;12:635569. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.635569.

Ossart J, Moreau A, Autrusseau E, Ménoret S, Martin JC, Besnard M, Ouisse LH, Tesson L, Flippe L, Kisand K, Peterson P, Hubert FX, Anegon I, Josien R, Guillonneau C. Breakdown of Immune Tolerance in AIRE-Deficient Rats Induces a Severe Autoimmune Polyendocrinopathy-Candidiasis-Ectodermal Dystrophy-like Autoimmune Disease. J Immunol. 2018 Aug 1;201(3):874-887. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1701318. Epub 2018 Jun 29.