Profile

I’m 26 and I live in Belfast with my boyfriend and lurcher puppy, Louie.

I love to bake and I watch an insane amount of cookery shows, Great British Menu is my favourite at the minute.

Helminths are a type of parasite which are very successful at infecting people. It is thought that around 2 billion people worldwide carry some kind of parasitic infection.

What is interesting about these infections is that they prevent the immune response that is meant to get rid of the parasite. Instead the parasite makes an “anti-inflammatory” response so that it can stay in the host longer.

My research group has found a particular protein from the liver fluke that can change important cells in the immune response. Other researchers have used this peptide in mouse models of multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and asthma and it was shown to reduce symptoms of these diseases.

My research wants to see if this protein can do the same thing in models of lung disease, particularly bacterial infection which is seen a lot in patients with cystic fibrosis and COPD.