Capacity building in single cell inflammation discovery: developing the next generation of scientists

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Objective: To advance national and international expertise in human single cell analysis by awarding Discovery Fellowships to early career academics who focus on specific cell subsets in health and disease at mucosal barriers.
Our vision is to become an international leader in understanding cell boundaries in human health and disease, for the benefit of patients in Manchester and beyond. The Fellows will ultimately form part of a wider bid for a Centre of Excellence in inflammation.
Rationale: Cellular heterogeneity leads to variability in response of otherwise identical cells to the same stimulus. Examining a single population of cells using pre-defined criteria essentially averages their true complexity. This impairs an understanding of immune health and disease and strategies to alleviate inflammation. Single cell analysis has emerged as the next frontier, removing pre-conceptions on cell phenotype and allowing unbiased definition and discovery.
There are few early academics in this speciality, particularly in the local area. We are ideally placed to support early career fellows and projects containing high risk basic discovery research that is currently precompetitive for external support. We have precedence in recruiting excellent young investigators that rapidly succeed in developing independence.
Approach: Discovery Fellowships will be advertised and successful applicants provided with competitive start-up funds. A call for projects will be advertised internally. They will be embedded in the MRC-funded single cell research centre and aligned to the Manchester Collaborative Centre for inflammation Research that has strong links with GSK and AZ. Ultimately they will demonstrate success in competitive funding, with the security of institutional commitment for a further 12 months.
This approach will prime novel interactions with existing academics, evolve expertise across the North and transform discovery of new medicines and disease mechanisms.