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Monday the 14^th of December 14, Marie-Pierre CONFORT (Team: Biology of phleboviruses) successfully defended her Life and Earth Sciences diploma from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes on a project entitled "Role of IFITMs (Interferon Induced Transmembrane proteins) in the innate antiviral response against the Rift Valley Fever virus.”

The innate immune system is essential for the rapid production of type-I interferon (IFN-I) and cytokines and is the first line of defense against viral infections in mammals. Activation of these pathways induces the expression of several restriction factors such as IFITMs which are capable of blocking a large panel of viruses. In collaboration with Andrea Cimarelli (CIRI-Lyon), The objective of his project was to study the effect of human IFITMs (hIFITMs) on the entry of various viruses including the Rift Valley fever virus; a arbovirus responsible for a fatal zoonotic disease in livestock and humans. This work revealed that, unlike several other viruses, RVFV is resistant to restriction induced by hIFITMs. This study was published in PLoS Pathogens (Tartour et al. Plos Pathogen 2017). Following this study, the goal is now to identify the determinant(s) of the resistance of RVFV to hIFITMs and to extend to other phleboviruses such as Toscana virus as well as IFITMs from other species that are naturally infected by these viruses (e.g. ruminants, camels, etc.).