IIT Seminar | Dr Joanne Konkel

Dr Joanne Konkel (University of Manchester) will be speaking at the UCL Institute of Immunity and Transplantation Seminar Series on Thursday 14 October.

All are welcome to attend. Please contact Fran Jackson (f.jackson@ucl.ac.uk) if you would like to join the seminar, or meet the speaker.

About the speaker

After receiving her BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol, Dr Joanne Konkel moved to the University of Edinburgh to undertake a Wellcome Trust funded PhD. Performing these studies in the laboratory of Professor Stephen Anderton, Dr Konkel became interested in understanding how T cells perceive and respond to their environment and differentiate accordingly.

After completing her PhD in 2009 Dr Konkel moved to National Institutes of Health in the USA to undertake post-doctoral work in the laboratory of Dr Wanjun Chen in the National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Research. It was here that she developed her interest in mucosal immunology and the important mucosal cytokine TGFβ, exploring the development of both conventional T cells and, less well-studied, unconventional T cells residing at barrier sites.

These studies led Dr Konkel to start her own group examining the immune cell networks present at barrier sites, with a particular emphasis on the oral mucosa, and how the unique and conventional immune cells present at barrier sites perceive and are locally conditioned by the tissue microenvironment. Recently Dr Konkel was awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship to support her ongoing studies

Further information

• Academic profile: Dr Joanne Konkel
• University of Manchester