Agnieska, a postdoc in the Maloy Group, will be presenting at the International Congress of Immunology conference in Melbourne from 21 – 26 August, 2016.
Agnieska said: “This meeting is held every 3 years and it is the biggest global event in the immunology field, so I am really excited about the opportunity to present my research, not to mention visiting Australia for the first time!”
eLIFE’s travel grant programme aims to support early-career scientists in getting exposure and recognition for their work amongst leading scientists in their field.
Agnieska’s research has discovered that autophagy, a physiological process in the body that deals with destruction of cells, is crucial in maintaining the population of regulatory T cells in the intestine. T cells are crucial in ensuring a healthy gut and preventing inflammation.
Agnieska’s discovery has potential implications for patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), because mutations in autophagy genes are believed to make a person more likely to suffer IBD, although precisely how is currently unclear.
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