Modulating The Skin Immune System With Physical Stimulus
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$425,353.00
Summary
The Fellowship will be based between Uni QLD and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. It will consist of pre-clinical development and validation of an in vivo optical micro-manipulation system for laser-guided extraction of cells. A comparable system will then be developed for characterization of leukocytes in healthy and diseased human skin. The long term outcomes will be better characterisation of inflammatory skin disease resulting in new targets and therapeutic strategies.
The glomerulus is the filtering component of the kidney. In many diseases, it can be the target of an inappropriate inflammatory response. As part of this response, white blood cells accumulate in the glomerulus where they cause damage. The aim of the project is to determine how these white blood cells accumulate in the glomerulus, specifically asking the question, what molecules present on the white blood cells and the glomerular blood vessels are required for this accumulation?