Christine E. Loscher | |
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Alma mater | Dublin Institute of Technology National University of Ireland |
Known for | Immunology |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Dublin City University Trinity College Dublin |
Christine E. Loscher is a Professor of Biotechnology and Associate Dean for Research at Dublin City University. Loscher is director of the Health Technologies Research and Enterprise Hub, and she works on bioactive molecules for autoimmune diseases.
During her undergraduate studies at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Loscher worked with Cliona O’Farrelly at St. Vincent's University Hospital. [1] Loscher earned her PhD at the National University of Ireland in 2000. [2] Following her graduate studies, Loscher joined Trinity College Dublin as a postdoctoral researcher. [3] She worked with Kingston Mills on how vaccines can trigger fevers. [4] In 2003 she was appointed to the St. James's Hospital Institute of Molecular Medicine. [2]
Loscher joined Dublin City University in 2005. [2] She established the Immunomodulation Research Group with Helen Roche. [5] She also directs the Nano-Bioanalytical Research Facility. [5] She looks at how modulating the immune response can improve health, developing new anti-inflammatory compounds for the pharmaceutical and food industry. [6] She investigates bioactive molecules in marine mash. [3] Whilst the immune system may be best known for fighting disease, it is sometimes triggered into chronic inflammation. [1] She has described her work to the Irish Independent. [7]
She served as Principal Investigator for the research consortium Food for Health Ireland, an organisation that partners academics with Irish dairy and ingredient companies. [3] She has worked with Teagasc to identify ingredients that can help lactose intolerance infants. [3] She discovered how the immune system responds to Clostridioides difficile - outer proteins trigger immune responses. [3] Loscher serves on the Irish Society of Immunology. [8]
Loscher runs ResearchFest, a strand of InspireFest, where researchers give short talks about their work. [9] In 2016 she announced that Dublin City University would name half of its buildings after inspirational women. [10] She contributed to the Royal Society of Chemistry Innate Immunology Summit. [11] She was selected by Silicon Republic as one of the Women Invent Tomorrow in 204 and Top 100 Women in Science in 2016. [12] She delivered a TED Talk on the Future of Food. [13] [14] In 2018 she was selected by Silicon Republic as one of the top 22 scientists to follow. [15]
The immune system is a network of biological systems that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinters, distinguishing them from the organism's own healthy tissue. Many species have two major subsystems of the immune system. The innate immune system provides a preconfigured response to broad groups of situations and stimuli. The adaptive immune system provides a tailored response to each stimulus by learning to recognize molecules it has previously encountered. Both use molecules and cells to perform their functions.
An immune response is a physiological reaction which occurs within an organism in the context of inflammation for the purpose of defending against exogenous factors. These include a wide variety of different toxins, viruses, intra- and extracellular bacteria, protozoa, helminths, and fungi which could cause serious problems to the health of the host organism if not cleared from the body.
Dublin City University is a university based on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. Created as the National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin in 1975, it enrolled its first students in 1980, and was elevated to university status in September 1989 by statute.
Dublin City University Gaelic Athletic Association Club is the GAA club at Dublin City University. The club fields teams in men's Gaelic football, hurling, ladies' Gaelic football and camogie. It also organises Gaelic handball. The club mainly competes in intervarsity competitions such as the Sigerson Cup, the Fitzgibbon Cup, the O'Connor Cup and the Ashbourne Cup. DCU has also entered competitions organised by the Leinster GAA, including the O'Byrne Cup, the Kehoe Cup and Walsh Cup. In 2016 St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra merged with Dublin City University. As a result some DCU GAA teams, especially reserve teams, compete as DCU St Patrick's or DCU Dóchas Éireann.
Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are molecules within cells that are a component of the innate immune response released from damaged or dying cells due to trauma or an infection by a pathogen. They are also known as danger signals, and alarmins because they serve as warning signs to alert the organism to any damage or infection to its cells. DAMPs are endogenous danger signals that are discharged to the extracellular space in response to damage to the cell from mechanical trauma or a pathogen. Once a DAMP is released from the cell, it promotes a noninfectious inflammatory response by binding to a pattern recognition receptor (PRR). Inflammation is a key aspect of the innate immune response; it is used to help mitigate future damage to the organism by removing harmful invaders from the affected area and start the healing process. As an example, the cytokine IL-1α is a DAMP that originates within the nucleus of the cell which, once released to the extracellular space, binds to the PRR IL-1R, which in turn initiates an inflammatory response to the trauma or pathogen that initiated the release of IL-1α. In contrast to the noninfectious inflammatory response produced by DAMPs, pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) initiate and perpetuate the infectious pathogen-induced inflammatory response. Many DAMPs are nuclear or cytosolic proteins with defined intracellular function that are released outside the cell following tissue injury. This displacement from the intracellular space to the extracellular space moves the DAMPs from a reducing to an oxidizing environment, causing their functional denaturation, resulting in their loss of function. Outside of the aforementioned nuclear and cytosolic DAMPs, there are other DAMPs originated from different sources, such as mitochondria, granules, the extracellular matrix, the endoplasmic reticulum, and the plasma membrane.
Opsona Therapeutics was a drug development company specialising in the human immune system and new drugs and vaccines to prevent and treat autoimmune/inflammatory conditions, cancers and infectious diseases.
Tia Emmetine Keyes is a professor of physical chemistry at the School of Chemical Sciences, and a member of the National Centre for Sensor Research at Dublin City University.
Katherine A. Fitzgerald is an Irish-born American molecular biologist and virologist. She is a professor of medicine currently working in the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is also the director of the Program in Innate Immunity.
Luke Anthony John O'Neill is an Irish biochemist. He has been a professor of biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin since 2009.
Lindsay Peat is an Ireland women's rugby union international. Peat represented Ireland at the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup. Peat is an all-round sportswoman. In addition to representing Ireland at women's rugby union, she has also played for the Republic of Ireland women's national association football team at U-18 level, captained the Ireland women's national basketball team and played senior Ladies' Gaelic football for Dublin. Between 2009 and 2014 she played in three All-Ireland finals. She was a member of the Dublin team that won the All-Ireland title in 2010 and she scored two goals in the 2014 final.
Jessamyn Fairfield is an American physicist who researches biocompatible nanomaterials and neuromorphic devices at NUI Galway.
Annie Curtis is an Irish immunologist at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland whose career has spanned academia, public sector and industry. She studies how the power of the body clock can be harnessed to control inflammatory diseases.
Ann O'Dea is an Irish businesswoman, the co-founder and CEO of Silicon Republic and the CEO of Inspirefest.
Caitríona Lally is a professor of Bioengineering in Trinity College, Dublin. She has been a qualified mechanical engineer since 1997. She did a PhD in cardiovascular biomechanics.
Jane Suiter is an Irish political scientist, professor and director of Dublin City University's Institute for Future Media, Democracy, and Society ("FuJo") and research lead of Ireland's Constitutional Convention and the Citizens' Assembly. She is the co-author or co-editor of three academic books and one guide book, and over 40 journal articles. In December 2020, she was named "Researcher of the Year" by the Irish Research Council and in February 2021, she was promoted to the position of professor by DCU.
Sarah Rowe is a triple code sportswoman. She is a former Republic of Ireland women's association football international. In addition to association football, Rowe has also played two other football codes at a senior level. She has played ladies' Gaelic football for Mayo and women's Australian rules football for Collingwood in the AFLW. At club level, Rowe has played association football for Castlebar Celtic, Raheny United, Shelbourne, Bohemians in the Women's National League and for Melbourne Victory in the A-League Women. Rowe was a member of the Republic of Ireland U19 team that won their group at the 2014 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship and qualified for the semi-finals. In 2016, she was also a member of the Shelbourne Ladies team that won a Women's National League/FAI Women's Cup double. In 2023, she returned to association football briefly playing for Melbourne Victory and then for Bohemians.
Aoife Gowen is currently a professor in the University College Dublin (UCD) School of Biosystems and Food Engineering. Her area of research covers topics such as applications of hyperspectral imaging and chemometrics to biological systems.
Sabina Brennan is an Irish neuroscientist, psychologist, and former television actress. She is currently an adjunct assistant professor working at Trinity College Dublin.
Silvia Giordani is an Italian chemist who is Professor of Nanomaterials at Dublin City University. Her research considers carbon-based functional materials for biotechnology. She was awarded a L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science fellowship in 2012.
Cliona O’Farrelly is an Irish immunologist, with a background in comparative, liver and cancer immunology, focuses on the innate immune response to viruses to identify new or improved therapeutic strategies to control resistance to viral infection.