On Wednesday, March 25, 8:00 am–9:00 am, Brigitta Stockinger will deliver the Keynote Medical Research Council (MRC) Council Keynote Lecture, “Environmental Influences on the Immune System via the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor.” The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), well known in the pharmacology/toxicology field for its role in mediating the toxicity of xenobiotics, has more recently attracted the attention of immunologists. The evolutionary conservation of this transcription factor and its widespread expression in the immune system point to important physiological functions that are slowly being unravelled.
In particular, the emphasis is now shifting from the role of AhR in the xenobiotic pathway toward its mode of action in response to physiological ligands. The current focus in the field is on understanding the molecular interactions and functions of AhR in the immune system in steady state and in the presence of infection and inflammation, particularly in barrier organs such as the skin, the gut, and the lung.
Dr. Stockinger obtained her PhD in biology at the University of Mainz, and did postdoctoral training in London, Cambridge (UK), and at the Cancer Research Institute in Heidelberg. In 1985, she became a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology. In 1991, she became a group leader in the Division of Molecular Immunology of the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill. Her research initially focused on immune tolerance using T cell receptor transgenic mouse models.
The current research focus of her laboratory at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London, United Kingdom, is on T cell biology, understanding the development, differentiation, and function of peripheral CD4 T cell subsets, as well as the physiological functions of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in the immune system. Dr. Stockinger obtained an ERC Advanced Investigator grant in 2009 to study physiological functions of AhR and in 2013 was awarded a Wellcome Senior Investigator Grant that will continue and expand the investigation of AhR in innate and adaptive immune cells. She became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2005, an EMBO fellow in 2008, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2013.