Headline: Congratulations to Stefanie Steiger on successfully defending her PhD Thesis!
10 March 2014, Arthritis, Our People
On behalf of everyone at the Malaghan Institute we congratulate Arthritis & Inflammation PhD student Stefanie Steiger on successfully defending her doctoral thesis “The role of TGFβ1 and macrophage differentiation in MSU crystal-induced inflammation”.
The focus of Stefanie’s PhD research, under the supervision of Dr Jacquie Harper, was the anti-inflammatory molecule TGFβ1, which has been shown to play a role during the resolution of an acute gout attack.
“During my PhD I investigated different sources of TGFβ1 and found that immune cells known as neutrophils clear up dying cells and produce TGFβ1, therefore contributing to the shutdown of acute inflammation.”
“This anti-inflammatory molecule can also affect other immune cells known as macrophages to trigger changes in their inflammatory functions in response to MSU crystals, the causative agent of gout.”
Stefanie says that targeting TGFβ1 could be beneficial for controlling recurrent acute gout attacks.
You can find out more about the Malaghan Institute’s Arthritis & Inflammation research by following the link here.
For more information
Arthritis & Inflammation Group Leader
- Em.
- jharper@malaghan.org.nz
- Ph.
- +64 4 499 6914 ext 869
- Fax.
- +64 4 499 6915
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