Final Report Summary - EGF-R FOR IMMUNITY (Use of EGF-R antagonists for the treatment of chronic infections and tumor growth)
Key aspect with regard to the aim of the CIG funding scheme has been to integrate a researcher from one European country into the scientific community of another European country. The CIG “EGF-R for Immunity” clearly achieved this aim.
The grantee moved in Autumn 2013 to the UK to fill a faculty position at the University of Edinburgh. He established a very productive Lab of about seven people, became tenured and promoted to the position of a Reader (Associated Professor) in Immunology. Within the funding period of the CIG grant he attracted 8 additional research grants and published 11 peer-reviewed publications in such high-profile journals as Immunity (Zaiss et al. 2015 or Minutti et al. 2017), Science (Minutti et al. 2017), PNAS (Monticelli et al. 2015) or the Journal of Clinical Investigation (Bruce 2017).
In the period of the grant funding the grantee supervised 3 PhD students, 3 Master by Research students and 8 undergraduate research project students. These different researchers have worked either directly on those research Aims as they have been described in the CIG proposal or work on topics, which are closely related to this project and address the function of the EGF-R in the immune system (as it is suggested by the CIG acronym “EGF-R for Immunity”).
In line with these scientific progress the grantee has been invited to give presentations at 13 different Universities and Research Centers nationally (within the UK), within Europe and worldwide. Furthermore, he gave twice oral presentations at the annual conference of the national/British society of Immunologists and presented his work on the local radio and evening news (BBC Scotland) and twice to a selection of Scottish members of Parliament.
Furthermore, the grantee organized a European-wide ITN grant proposal, which was then finally funded in 2017, established a consortium to develop inhibitors against the EGF-like growth factor Amphiregulin and to test these in a preclinical setting. To develop these inhibitors further the grantee got in contact with different European pharmaceutical companies, such as Boehringer Ingelheim.
The grantee moved in Autumn 2013 to the UK to fill a faculty position at the University of Edinburgh. He established a very productive Lab of about seven people, became tenured and promoted to the position of a Reader (Associated Professor) in Immunology. Within the funding period of the CIG grant he attracted 8 additional research grants and published 11 peer-reviewed publications in such high-profile journals as Immunity (Zaiss et al. 2015 or Minutti et al. 2017), Science (Minutti et al. 2017), PNAS (Monticelli et al. 2015) or the Journal of Clinical Investigation (Bruce 2017).
In the period of the grant funding the grantee supervised 3 PhD students, 3 Master by Research students and 8 undergraduate research project students. These different researchers have worked either directly on those research Aims as they have been described in the CIG proposal or work on topics, which are closely related to this project and address the function of the EGF-R in the immune system (as it is suggested by the CIG acronym “EGF-R for Immunity”).
In line with these scientific progress the grantee has been invited to give presentations at 13 different Universities and Research Centers nationally (within the UK), within Europe and worldwide. Furthermore, he gave twice oral presentations at the annual conference of the national/British society of Immunologists and presented his work on the local radio and evening news (BBC Scotland) and twice to a selection of Scottish members of Parliament.
Furthermore, the grantee organized a European-wide ITN grant proposal, which was then finally funded in 2017, established a consortium to develop inhibitors against the EGF-like growth factor Amphiregulin and to test these in a preclinical setting. To develop these inhibitors further the grantee got in contact with different European pharmaceutical companies, such as Boehringer Ingelheim.