Congratulations to Wilson and Kiss-Toth Labs | HELSI ECR Charlotte Moss' paper: 'Markers of the ageing macrophage: a systematic review and meta-analysis' has been published in Frontiers in Immunology. Charlotte started her PhD in 2020 with Endre and Heather; she has used meta-analysis by information content (MAIC) and systematic literature review (SLR) to determine changes in macrophage gene and protein expression and function with age.
Macrophages are an innate immune cell type known to undergo functional decline with age. Although they are gaining ground in their contribution to ageing, macrophages have a high level of diversity between tissues and local environments. This work aimed to collate literature assessing macrophages in ageing, including functional and expression data, in order to draw overall conclusions on how these cells change with age and find potential markers for macrophage ageing.
Charlotte presented her research at The Immunity and Ageing Keystone Symposia 2023. Here's what she said about the event.
The Immunity and Ageing Keystone Symposia 2023 was held at Whistler Conference Centre in British Columbia, Canada – an incredibly beautiful area of the world that is well worth a visit, even if you aren’t much of a skier. It was an amazing first of its kind conference bringing together ageing and immunology scientists to share research and collaboration. I was very lucky to be among top researchers and industry experts in both fields, presenting my work in both a poster and 10-minute talk. It was a friendly and attentive audience that gave me lots to think about as I bring my PhD research to an end and think about what might come next.
We heard talks across both fields – from the hallmarks of ageing to the immune system in ageing, inflammaging and clinical applications. The conference specifically invited the sharing of unpublished data and it was remarkable to see such high level work going on around the world – certainly there is no consensus yet on how to cure ageing so there is plenty more to be done in the field.
I had an amazing time, learnt a lot and thoroughly enjoyed introducing people to my research and the Healthy Lifespan Institute's mission. I’m very thankful for the opportunity, made possible by a scholarship from both Keystone and the Healthy Lifespan Institute, at The University of Sheffield. Any ECRs thinking of going to a conference abroad – I definitely recommend it!
