Congratulations Claire E. O’Leary, ICIS-Pfizer Junior Investigator Award Winner at Cytokines 2022

Dr. Claire O’Leary developed a passion for immunology and cytokine biology as a graduate student with Dr. Paula Oliver at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied the role of ubiquitin in regulating activation and differentiation of T cells. Following her interest in mucosal immunology and regulation of immunity by cytokines, Claire joined the lab of Dr. Richard Locksley at UCSF as a postdoctoral fellow in 2016. As a postdoc, Claire has studied the function and regulation of secretory epithelial cells called tuft cells, and how these cells modulate the interaction between diet, commensal organisms, the epithelium, and immune cells. Claire’s work demonstrated that tuft cells in the extrahepatic biliary tree limit microbiome-dependent inflammation in this understudied tissue space. Claire will continue to study tuft cells, the biliary tree, and the role of the microbiome in immunity as an independent investigator with the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.