Anne's research

After obtaining her PhD in microbiology and postdoctoral fellowship in immunology at the MRC NIMR, Anne moved to the DNAX Research Institute in California as an independent group leader. She returned to the UK in 2001 to form the Division of Immunoregulation at NIMR, and now continues her research into immune responses as a principal group leader at the Crick.

Anne studies the control of immune responses by cell-to-cell interactions and proteins called cytokines, as well as how the immune system responds to tuberculosis in mice and humans. Her most recently published research investigated how interactions between microorganisms and the body’s immune defences can lead to gut inflammation and colitis.

Anne has made significant contributions to our understanding of the immune response. She first discovered that a cytokine called interleukin-10 suppresses the immune system by limiting production of pro-inflammatory cytokines from dendritic cells and macrophages. She then discovered that dendritic cells produce interleukin-12, which mobilises T cell to fight disease. The balance between these two cytokines is crucial for preventing damage to host cells but can also lead to cases of chronic infection.

In the last fifteen years, Anne has turned her attention to studying the immune response in tuberculosis, where she and collaborators described a type I interferon signature of active tuberculosis and that this contributes to TB disease.

In addition to her election to the National Academy of Sciences, Anne is also a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO). She is also a member of a number of scientific advisory boards, including the Keystone Conferences and an Editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

I am delighted and honoured to have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. It is only with my lab members who contributed to all the research and continue to do so, and my collaborators and mentors through the years that I have achieved this honour.

- Anne O'Garra, principal group leader

The National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 and recognises achievement in science by election to membership, as well as providing science, engineering and health policy advice to government and other organisations.