Yonatan Ganor
Dr. Yonatan Ganor is one of few recognized experts worldwide with unique combined expertise in neuro-immuno-virology. He pioneered the experimental use of human tissues derived from the male genitals (of healthy individuals and rare ones from people living with HIV-1) and significantly impacted the HIV-1 field: i) describing events of mucosal HIV-1 entry and role of genital fluids in the inner foreskin / urethra (Ganor Mucosal Immunol 2010, 2013; Zhou PLoS Pathog 2011; Zhou Mucosal Immunol 2018; Real Cell Rep 2018); ii) providing the first evidence that human urethral macrophages are HIV-1 reservoirs (Ganor Nat Microbiol 2019), challenging the dogma that HIV-1 reservoirs establish only in T-cells. He was amongst the first to demonstrate the unexpected anti-viral role of the neuropeptide CGRP that affects mucosal Langerhan cells and prevents infection with HIV-1 (Ganor JEM 2013; Ganor Acta Physiol 2015; Bomsel J Virol 2017; Mariotton Front Immunol 2021), as do the CGRP-inducing natural ligands capsaicin and cannabidiol (Mariotton PNAS 2023, Barbosa Bomfifm Mucosal Immunol 2026), and other mucosal viruses including HSV (Cohen Mucosal Immunol 2022) and SARS-CoV-2 (Barbosa Bomfim J Virol 2024). He is studying neuroimmune interactions in health and disease, and is co-director of the ‘Mucosal Entry, Persistence and Neuro-Immune Control of HIV-1 and other viruses’ laboratory and the Immunology Axis at the Institut Cochin in Paris.
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