Olivia James, a Wellcome Trust PhD student in Dr. Mahima Swamy’s lab in the MRC PPU has been awarded the Dundee Prize for Molecular and Cellular Biology 2021.

The judges were very impressed with the high standard of her work. They said “Olivia’s study, which formed the core of her PhD research project, is a tour de force of immunology, proteomics, cell signalling and translation to human disease, that showcases the techniques available at the School of Life Sciences, and therefore is a worthy winner of the 2021 Cell and Molecular Biology Prize.”

In her 2021 Nature Communications paper, Olivia carried out proteomic characterisation of an enigmatic subset of immune cells known as intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL). She stimulated the cells with IL-15, a critical cytokine in IEL responses. As well as providing a definitive resource of the proteomic landscape of this cell type, her work also identified 2 kinases, PIM1 and PIM2, which are strongly upregulated on IL-15 stimulation. Olivia then went on to use PIM1/2 dKO mice to show that their IELs have defective proliferation and activation profiles. Therefore, the PIM kinases represent a critical checkpoint for control of IEL responses.

IELs and IL-15 are strongly implicated in the development of Coeliac disease. When Olivia then interrogated IEL from Coeliac disease patients she found that again the PIM kinases were upregulated. Based on these exciting findings from Olivia’s research, the PIM kinases are now being explored as potential therapeutic targets for treating Coeliac disease and other IL-15 mediated autoimmune diseases.

Olivia said “I am delighted to receive this honour, and thank the judges for choosing me, and the Swamy lab for giving me the opportunity to carry out my Phd here.”