Infections, the microbiome and host defence peptides in the development and progression of asthma

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Chairs: C. Britto (New Haven, United States of America), D. Bogaert (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
Aims: to describe the immune contributions of airway host defence peptides and proteins (HDPs) to pulmonary health and disease; to demonstrate the importance of HDPs for regulating host-pathogen interactions and the progression of lung disease; to highlight clinical applications of the immune properties of HDPs in respiratory medicine.

The environmental microbiome and its link to allergies and asthma M. Ege (München, Germany)
Exposure to helminth parasites and asthma development H. Smits (Leiden, Netherlands)
Dysregulation of host defence peptides by environmental challenge: Can we mitigate the pathophysiology? N. Mookherjee (Winnipeg (MB), Canada)
The innate defence peptide BPIFA1/SPLUNC1 restricts respiratory viral infections C. Bingle (Sheffield (South Yorkshire), United Kingdom)