{"id":2082,"date":"2025-10-10T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/mfig\/?p=2082"},"modified":"2025-10-27T13:36:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:36:55","slug":"meet-the-phd-student-laura-bevan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/mfig\/2025\/10\/10\/meet-the-phd-student-laura-bevan\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the PhD student: Laura Bevan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi I\u2019m Laura, and I\u2019ve just started my PhD in Dr Sara Gago\u2019s group. I\u2019m originally from London and did my Integrated Masters in Biochemistry at the University of St Andrews. I also did a placement year in Southampton working on HIV-1 glycosylation. Whilst my experience so far has\u00a0<\/span>mostly\u00a0been virology based, I\u2019m really looking forward to learning more about mycology and getting started with my project.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
My project here is funded by the BBSRC as part of the Northwest Doctoral programme and\u00a0will focus on fungal-viral coinfections of the respiratory system. A key part of this research is to gain insight into the molecular mechanisms of coinfection, particularly in relation to inflammatory cell death. This will hopefully also provide a framework to apply to other coinfection studies.<\/div>\n

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Meet the PhD student: Dr Felix Bongomin<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
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\nWe are delighted to announce that Manchester University lecturer Dr Margherita Bertuzzi has been awarded a New Investigator Research Grant by the Medical Research Council (MRC) to study Aspergillus fumigatus<\/em>-epithelial interactions, how these influence immune responses and how they are dysregulated in disease.<\/p>\n

Airborne spores of the most prominent fungal pathogen of human lungs, Aspergillus fumigatus<\/em>, are a major component of the air we breathe and are responsible for more than 3 million chronic infections and initiate over 200,000 invasive diseases annually worldwide. Some groups of severely immunocompromised patients, such as those undergoing bone marrow transplants, have just a 10% survival rate once a fungal infection is contracted.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemarkably, while fungal diseases cause more deaths annually than tuberculosis or malaria, we still lack effective drugs to treat many of these infections,\u201d said Dr Bertuzzi, who is principal investigator of the three-year project. \u201cObtaining first-in-field insights into the mechanistic basis of the antifungal potency of the airway epithelium will open avenues for the development of novel immunomodulatory therapeutic strategies to facilitate treatment of lung diseases caused by Aspergillus fumigatus<\/em> and other respiratory pathogens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Investigator Research Grant is a competitive award aimed at researchers who are in the process of becoming independent Principal Investigators. The award will support Dr Bertuzzi\u2019s research which focuses on the epithelial interactions with inhaled respiratory pathogens and the role of these events in health and disease; how these interactions affect communication with other components of human immune and inflammatory cascades, and the technical know-how to translate this knowledge into human benefit.<\/p>\n

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Meet the PhD student: Jamie Tindale<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Meet the PhD student: Dr Felix Bongomin<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
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Prof Mike Bromley (Centre Director)<\/strong>
Email: mike.bromley@manchester.ac.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr Margherita Bertuzzi
<\/strong>Email:\u00a0margherita.bertuzzi@manchester.ac.uk<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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