PhD Fellowship in Neuroimmunology (M/F) - Toulouse Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases (INFINITY)

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">Offer Description Completion of the thesis will be at the Infinity institute located in Toulouse, France. Project will be supervised by Renaud Lesourne in the team Integrative mapping of lymphocyte signaling and function. The central nervous system has long been considered an “immune-privileged” site, where immune activity is tightly restricted. However, accumulating evidence indicates that active and dynamic mechanisms continuously regulate immune cell infiltration and function within the brain. In particular, T-cell activity is finely tuned by regulatory pathways that control activation, differentiation, and tissue adaptation. While these mechanisms are well characterized in peripheral inflammatory contexts such as cancer and infection, their roles in healthy tissues, and especially within the central nervous system, remain poorly understood. Based on recent preliminary data generated in our team, we hypothesize that regulation of TCR signaling orchestrates both the entry and functional programming of T cells within the central nervous system, acting as a key determinant of its immune landscape at steady state. This PhD project aims to dissect the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control these processes in the CNS, and to determine how their dysregulation impacts immune homeostasis, susceptibility to neuroinflammatory disease, and cognitive function. The project will combine cutting-edge appr