Dr Sally Clayton, a Research Fellow based in the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham, has been awarded an Early-Career Award by the Wellcome Trust valued at £706.3K over a five-year period.
The Wellcome Trust Early-Career Award is a scheme catering to early-career researchers across various disciplines with the financial support to advance understanding in their respective fields. Researchers' salary and up to £400,000 for research expenses are covered and are typically funded for five years with a view to allow researchers to be ready to lead their own independent research programme by the end of the award.
For the duration of her project, Dr Clayton will be based within the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, collaborating closely with Dr Sarah Dimeloe. Her project will be investigating mitochondrial pathways, with particular focus on a novel pathway that becomes dysregulated, which is then linked to various inflammatory diseases, such as sepsis and rheumatoid arthritis.
I am really delighted to have been awarded the early-career award by the Wellcome Trust. Being able to understand the fundamental processes of mitochondrial pathways and how they control the function of immune cells will shine new light on potential interventions to treat inflammation when those processes go wrong.
Dr Sally Clayton, Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham
Along with collaborating with colleagues from the University's Institutes of Inflammation and Ageing and Metabolism and Systems Research, Dr Clayton will also be working with researchers from Newcastle University and University College London to accelerate discoveries in mitochondrial proteins as potential key regulators of inflammatory disease.
The final aim for the project will be to uncover new avenues for therapeutic interventions in immune-related diseases.
