Dr. Terence N. Bukong graduated from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Buea (Cameroon) in 2002; his Master of Science in Immunology and Allergy Sciences at the University of Nottingham, England in 2005 and his Ph.D. in Translational Medicine from the School of Medicine and Medical Sciences ) from the University of Dublin (Ireland) in 2009. He was awarded a research fellowship at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Massachusetts (USA) from 2010 to 2016 and became a faculty member at the Institute National Scientific Research Armand Frappier in 2016.

The main objective of the laboratory is to understand at the molecular level how hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections result in persistent infections in individuals with metabolic syndrome related to alcohol consumption and diet. Whether they are associated with a metabolic syndrome related to poor diet or alcohol abuse or occur independently, chronic HCV and HIV infections are one of the leading causes of human illness worldwide. There is currently no vaccine against these viral infections and the treatments currently used do not make it possible to cure an HIV infection. There is a need to better understand how diseases modulate host-pathogen interactions in these viral infections to develop new, more effective treatments. We recently demonstrated that viruses could exploit other transmission mechanisms by host microvesicles that may compromise immunotherapies and decrease the effectiveness of chemotherapies. In addition, metabolic diseases caused by alcohol abuse or poor diet have been shown to promote the cellular release of microvesicles (exosomes), irrespective of the associated viral infections. Although metabolic or viral diseases are generally studied separately, it has become clear that the clinical situation implies a synergy between these diseases. This is why our research is not only about deciphering the mechanisms of single disease but also about more clinically relevant inclusions to consider the synergism between diseases that occur in patients. In addition, traditional virological studies have relied on conventional cell types that promote viral infections based on tropism. Based on our new observations that microvesicles can serve as intermediaries for classical independent receptor viral transmission to naive cells, Our laboratory uses in vitro and in vivo systems as well as samples of diseased patients and aims to identify new pathomes of disease comorbidity and innovative therapeutic strategies of direct interest to patients.