EMBO membership honours distinguished scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the life sciences, including 91 Nobel Laureates who have/have held EMBO membership
Muzz Haniffa is the NIHR Newcastle BRC's theme lead for Skin Disease, Oral Disease and Immunogenomics. She is a Senior Group Leader in the Cellular Genetics programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and Professor of Dermatology and Immunology at Newcastle University.
Muzz has made ground-breaking research contributions in immunology and human development. She has defined the development of prenatal immunity and its relevance to childhood leukaemia, has shown the role of developmental pathways in skin disease, described immune responses in COVID-19, and discovered new skin cell subsets that can be targeted for vaccination and immunotherapy.
Muzz was a founding member of the Human Cell Atlas, a global initiative aiming to map and characterise every cell type in the body. She continues to play a core role as Coordinator of the Development Bionetwork. To understand the human immune system her research team develops and integrates cutting edge experimental and computational techniques in single cell genomics, and pairs them with functional studies, including on organoid models. Her fundamental discoveries about the development and function of the immune system offer potential avenues for treatments for autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and cancer.
“I am delighted to be a part of EMBO, an organisation that supports international collaboration and idea exchange between researchers across Europe. Such collaboration and exchange is vital to all of the research my team is involved in. This recognition is a testament to the collective efforts of my fantastic team, the many collaborators with whom I’m very lucky to work, and the behind the scene enablers – my family and my mentors. Each day we are learning more about how the immune system develops and maintains health. I look forward to the future discoveries of the Human Cell Atlas project.”
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