Claire D Bourke

I am a postdoctoral research fellow specialising in human immunology, particularly how inflammation and immune cell dysfunction can leave people more susceptible to infections. My undergraduate BSc and PhD were from the University of Edinburgh, where I specialised in how parasitic worms polarise the responses of immune cells before and after treatment to clear infection. I went on to study parasitic worm immunology in more detail at the University of York, looking at how they activate wound healing in the skin and interact with innate immune cells in the blood. I undertook a second postdoctoral position at Queen Mary University of London studying how treatments for HIV infection affect inflammation, which can put people at higher risk of death and disease. I was awarded a Sir Henry Dale Research Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society in 2017 and am now investigating innate immune cell dysfunction in children admitted to hospitals in Zambia and Zimbabwe with malnutrition. I am affiliated with Queen Mary University of London, but am currently based at Zvitambo Institute of Maternal and Child Health in Harare, Zimbabwe.