I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Inflammation Research Centre, VIB focusing on the structural and functional characterisation of pro-inflammatory signalling complexes involved in autoimmunity and inflammatory diseases.

Thesis title: Neutrophil-derived proteases act as global regulators of IL-1 family cytokine activation states.Robust neutrophil infiltration and elevated neutrophil activity is associated with a range of inflammatory diseases and autoimmune conditions. Neutrophils have long been implicated in playing an important role in the coordination and escalation of inflammatory reactions, possibly via their arsenal of granule proteases. Consistent with this, mice deficient in neutrophil granule proteases exhibit a profound defect in recruitment to inflamed sites and are protected from certain autoimmune diseases. Despite the potential importance of this role, no clear picture has emerged as to how neutrophils achieve this. Members of the extended IL-1 family (IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-18, IL- 33, IL-36α, IL-36β and IL-36γ) are important instigators and amplifiers of inflammation, especially at barrier surfaces. However, while the majority of IL-1 family members require proteolytic processing for activation, no common route to regulating the activation state of these cytokines has emerged to date. We have shown that proteases liberated from activated neutrophils, via degranulation or neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), can positively or negatively regulate the activity of IL-1 cytokines. This suggests that neutrophils, through deploying their granule-derived proteases into the extracellular space at sites of infection and injury, serve as key regulators of the bioactivity of IL-1 family cytokines, thereby playing an important role in the coordination of inflammatory reactions.

I was chosen by Pfizer to participate in an internship programme during my degree in Biotechnology at Dublin City University. I worked in the Manufacturing Technology section of the Drug Substance Vaccines department. My responsibilities included participating in the manufacturing support investigations group to identify deviations from the production process and to implement corrective actions to prevent deviations reoccuring. I was also required to prepare detailed event reports to document the deviation and corrective action using SAP and SAPCAPA. I also gained experience in GMP and GLP practices. I was involved in supporting compliance inspections from regulatory agencies and worked as a backroom assistant involved in IMB audit preparation.