Dr Shoba Amarnath is an existing LEO Foundation awardee which was granted in 2019 with the aim to understand the role of immune cells in melanoma. As part of these investigations and to compare immune responses between cancer and autoimmunity, Shoba serendipitously found, through single-cell RNA and protein level analysis, that regulatory T cell (Treg) communication pathways with unconventional immune cells were significantly disrupted in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). This unbiased deep phenotyping specifically revealed a novel Treg specific regulatory mechanism in autoimmunity, especially crosstalk with osteoclast precursors (OCPs). It also has identified new targetable proteins in diseases where there is significant bone loss.
With the help of DKK 2.1 million (GBP 235.000) from the Serendipity Grant, Shoba’s project will investigate an unexpected link between regulatory T cells and the development of psoriatic arthritis (PsA).
The LEO Foundation’s Serendipity Grants encourage researchers to pursue unexpected results which often originate from researchers following their curiosity in investigating unexpected discoveries. This is the essence of the Serendipity Grants program that nurtures the researcher to pursue novel and unexpected – serendipitous – research ideas and findings.
Dr Shoba Amarnath says:
“The Serendipity grant allows us to investigate the role of immune cells in tissue repair and regeneration, a curious unresolved biology within the human immune system. We are excited to study the tissue repair role of T cells within this project and are very grateful for the funding”
Anne-Marie Engel, Chief Scientific Officer at the LEO Foundation said:
“With our Serendipity Grants, we would like to support discoveries that, within the context of the pursued project, can be seen as unsuccessful or outside scope but still might have the potential to generate brand-new insights and knowledge, “We are also keen on funding established researchers who wish to pursue exciting novel ideas that may be on the fringes of their current field of expertise, and we promote an approach where openness to new discoveries is key, as we believe it can support researchers in exploring promising new research paths. We are looking forward to following these five grantees’ new insights as they pursue the new research questions raised by their unexpected findings.”
“With our Serendipity Grants, we would like to support discoveries that, within the context of the pursued project, can be seen as unsuccessful or outside scope but still might have the potential to generate brand-new insights and knowledge,
“We are also keen on funding established researchers who wish to pursue exciting novel ideas that may be on the fringes of their current field of expertise, and we promote an approach where openness to new discoveries is key, as we believe it can support researchers in exploring promising new research paths. We are looking forward to following these five grantees’ new insights as they pursue the new research questions raised by their unexpected findings.”
Adapted with thanks to the LEO Foundation