Christine , Cansu and Cloe presented posters at the BSI Congress

This year, the British Society for Immunology (BSI) Congress was hosted in Belfast, Northern Ireland during Christmas market time.

Our colleagues, Cansu Gorgun, Christine Butler and Cloé Payet were selected to present a poster related to their projects. The conference gathers over 1000(!!) scientists from the UK and Europe.

This conference had amazing presentations with state-of-the-art technology. A few goodies from sponsors booths were won, scientific chats were had and even some old acquaintances were reconnected with (Cloe’s PhD jury from her viva in Paris).

The 4-day event really showed how immunology is such an expansive topic, but that everything can be linked together.

Cloé presents at Young ISI Conference

The Young Immunology Early Career Meeting, organised by yISI, took place in mid-October at St. James Hospital in TTMI.

Cloé Payet has been selected to give a talk about her project: Skin DCs display circadian (24 hour) rhythms in metabolic function which may be harnessed to improve vaccine efficacy.

The event had amazing talks from talented young immunologists but also a career panel discussion with scientists from academia, pharmaceuticals and grant offices. It was a good opportunity for early career researchers to gather and learn about new and exciting research in immunology in a very friendly environment.

HAI Conference 2023 - Paula gets an award for her talk

On October 13th to 14th, Paula attended the Haematology Association Ireland annual meeting in Galway.

She gave a 10 minute oral presentation on her PhD work so far. She described a novel application for the clock modulating drug SR9009 in controlling clot breakdown.

At the end of the conference she was excited to receive her first ever conference award for “Best Scientific Oral Presentation”.

Emma Presents at the Pittsburgh-Ireland International Lung Conference

The Pittsburgh-Ireland International Lung Conference took place in RCSI on the 16th and 17th of October this year. This unique conference brought together physicians, scientists, nurses and trainees involved in clinical research in pulmonary medicine, critical care, immunology, and infectious disease.

The theme of this year’s conference was: Precision Medicine in Lung Diseases: From Cellular Mechanisms to Clinical Phenotypes. Speakers from both sides of the Atlantic brought novel insights on the role of precision medicine in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, sleep, acute lung injury, lung cancer, pulmonary hypertension, and aging and fibrosis.

Among them our very own Emma Leacy presented work from her circadian study on circadian rhythms in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD).

In a cohort of AATD patients and healthy controls, Emma reported that AATD patients showed disruption to circulating cortisol, and that rhythmicity in the alpha-1 protein was lost. Furthermore, AATD monocytes lost their rhythmic expression of BMAL1, and showed excessive cytokine production in response to LPS.

Members of the Respiratory Research group presented their work on bronchoscopy techniques, long-term alpha-1 augmentation therapy, cellular senescence, genetic screening and ADAM17. A good time was had by all.

The lab attends circadian conference in Newcastle

Time to start taking time seriously: Circadian rhythms in infection and immunity

The Royal Society held a Theo Murphy meeting on circadian rhythms in infection and immunity, organised by Prof Sarah Reece, Dr Rachel Edgar and our very own Prof Annie Curtis.

Sadly, Annie couldn’t make it but the rest of the lab attended the two day meeting at the end of September and presented their research during the poster session.

The meeting welcomed circadian immunology experts from around the world, resulting in thought-provoking discussions and a welcoming atmosphere.

At the end of the meeting we all bid a sad farewell to Yan who returned to China shortly after the conference after spending 2 years with us in RCSI. We’ll miss you Yan, and best of luck with the rest of your PhD!

Wedding Bells are ringing in July

It is always a special time when a past lab member ties the knot.

In July George, who was with us for his PhD from 2016-2020 , said “I do” with Niamh, many of the lab members attended.

Unfortunately, Annie was unwell, but was able to send the following toast which was read out:

Dear Niamh and George

Hope you have the most amazing day . Gutted we can’t be there to celebrate with you, although I see from Maz’s pictures that the RCSI crew are well represented.

When George interviewed for our lab , he said straightfaced “if you love what you do you will never work a day in your life “ by god by the time George graduated through Covid he had worked many days.

I think that phrase can be used for marriage too “if you love your wife , you will never regret a day with her in your life”

Niamh and George I wish you the absolute best, your two very special people, just don’t ask George to ever run a western blot!

Love Annie and all the rest of our lab xx

Maz (Marianna) and George

Christine wins first prize for the rapid fire presentation at UKSB Conference

Christine attended the UK Society for Biomaterials conference at the end of June in Ulster University, Belfast. She presented a poster and 4-minute rapid fire presentation. Christine gave an overview of her PhD work so far and work on her secondment in the Donnelly Lab in Queens Belfast.

Both poster and talk were titled “Vaccination; In the right place, at the right time”. She was delighted to receive first prize for her presentation!

Lauren successfully defends her thesis on chondrocytes and nutrient receptors

Viva Date: June 6th 2023

Title of thesis: A Novel Role for Nutrient Receptors in Cartilage and Joint Disease; dissecting circadian and metabolic responses to IL-1B versus TNF in chondrocytes, and relevance for osteoarthritis

Beyond delighted that Lauren Fagan passed her viva today with panache. Laurens project was a tricky one as it crossed musculoskeletal biology, circadian rhythms and metabolism. She also had to deal with two supervisors, Oran Kennedy and Annie Curtis, which was no small feat. Both examiners Dr. Joan Gabhann and Prof. Eric Farrell were very impressed by Laurens ability to transverse these multiple areas.

Annie has had to take extended sick leave from February and was entirely absent in the final months of Laurens thesis writing, which again was tough for Lauren. Luckily, we still had Oran who directed Lauren skilfully through the write up and examination process.

Congrats Dr. Fagan, you overcame many challenges through this journey including COVID, you should be extremely proud of yourself. We will get this paper out to the community soon.

Graduation time

Congrats to James and Shannon who graduated with their PhDs in May 2023

Both have been using this year to travel the world (and no that’s not Dublin Zoo!). We wish them both every success in their future. No doubt these two will make an impact in the science world.

James successfully defends his thesis on macrophage circadian rhythms and the NLRP3 inflammasome

Viva Date: January 23rd 2023

Title of thesis: Circadian Rhythms Regulate the NLRP3 Inflammasome in Macrophages

Prof. Helene Duez from INSERM (who attended virtually) and Dr. Cristina Ruedell Reschke from RCSI were suitably impressed by James during his viva. They all agreed that a robust but enjoyable discussion was had. James passed with flying colours and his thesis required no further corrections, a fact that James was understandably very proud of.

Congrats Dr. O’Siorain, you battled many issues due to COVID during this PhD and technical challenges. But you kept plugging away and in the end produced a lovely piece of work which we will hopefully get published soon.

Shannon successfully defends her thesis on the circadian effect on lung fibroblasts

Date: January 17th 2023

Title of Thesis: Regulation of the Lung Fibroblast Immune Response by the Core Clock Protein BMAL1

PhD Candidate: Shannon Cox

It was a real delight when Shannon passed her viva titled “ Regulation of the Lung Fibroblast Immune Response by the Core Clock Protein BMAL1” with flying colours. Drs. Hannah Durringtonfrom University of Manchester attended virtually and Drs. Triona Ni Chonghaile from RCSI were the external and internal examiners. Shannon really enjoyed discussing and at times debating her results. Always nice when your PhD work is accepted before the viva as was the case here. Shannons work was published in FASEB journal in February.

Cox SL, O'Siorain JR, He Y, Lordan R, Naik A, Tang SY, Sengupta S, FitzGerald GA, Carroll RG, Curtis AM.
Circadian disruption in lung fibroblasts enhances NF-κB activity to exacerbate neutrophil recruitment.
FASEB J. 2023 Feb;37(2):e22753. doi: 10.1096/fj.202201456R.

We welcome Dr. Shannon Cox to the world, world watch out!