DoM Seminar: Professor Sarah Walmsley

'Reprogramming the neutrophil response'

Professor Sarah.Walmsley
Chair of Respiratory Medicine
Centre for Inflammation Research
University of Edinburgh

Host: Professor Sam Janes
Professor of Respiratory Medicine
Director, Division of Medicine UCL

Thursday 22nd June 2023 at 13:00 -14:00
This seminar will take place in Second Floor Seminar Room of the Rayne Buiding and will also run on Teams (link)

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Research
To date there are no effective treatments for neutrophilic inflammation which is central to the pathology of a number of important respiratory diseases including COPD, bronchiectasis and ARDS. Neutrophils as key effectors of the innate immune response are required to function at sites of inflammation that are relatively oxygen deplete – hypoxic. Unique to the neutrophil hypoxia is a profound survival stimulus. Neutrophils both sense oxygen and respond to changes in oxygenation via the HIF pathway, which involves regulation of the transcription factor hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) by von Hippel Lindau protein and a group of oxygen sensitive hydroxylases – prolyl hydroxylase domain (PHD) containing enzymes and factor inhibiting HIF (FIH). Preliminary data suggest a direct role for this oxygen sensing pathway in the regulation of neutrophil apoptosis at sites of hypoxia. I aim to elucidate the mechanisms regulating HIF-1alpha expression in neutrophils and determine the importance of these pathways for neutrophilic inflammation in vivo.

Biography
I am a medical graduate of Edinburgh University.  My current position is Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellow, University of Edinburgh; Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine.  I previously held a Wellcome Intermediate Clinical Fellowship with Professor Moira Whyte, University of Sheffield and prior to that held a MRC Training Fellowship with Professor Edwin Chilvers in the Division of Respiratory Medicine, University of Cambridge.  My research focuses on the regulation of neutrophil apoptosis by hypoxia.

I am a Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellow and practising Respiratory Physician.  Following a MRC Training Fellowship in Cambridge during which I obtained my PhD, I moved to the University of Sheffield where I was awarded a Wellcome Intermediate Clinical Fellowship. This enabled me to develop my research programme under the sponsorship of Professor Moira Whyte and complete my specialist clinical training in Respiratory Medicine, culminating in my award of a Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellowship and my move to the MRC/University of Edinburgh Centre for Inflammation Research.  My research focuses on defining how oxygen sensing and metabolic regulation influence phagocyte host defence. More specifically through a better understanding of the mechanisms by which hypoxia regulates key neutrophil functions and survival responses, I aim to validate the therapeutic potential of selective manipulation of these pathway in patients with chronic neutrophil-dominant inflammatory lung diseases.

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The seminars are open to UCL & UCLH staff, students and their visitors. Please contact alison.kelly@ucl.ac.uk for all enquires  
Audience members: Please ensure that your mic is muted and video turned off during the talk. There will be a 10-minute Q&A at the end of the talk. Please ensure that you use the ‘raise hand’ function if you would like to ask a question. Thank you.