Fellow

Moira Whyte is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the university of Sheffield. She has made major contributions to our understanding of molecular mechanisms regulating leukocyte death and survival at inflamed sites, particularly the inflamed lung. Her research commenced with an MRC training fellowship at the RPMS supervised by Chris Haslett and progressed to a Wellcome Trust advanced fellowship with Gerrard Evan when he was at ICRF. She was the first to show that inflammatory neutrophils are effectively “deactivated” by the process of apoptosis and has gone on to make increasingly important contributions to our understanding of the regulation of neutrophil function in the inflamed lung. A particularly exciting recent set of discoveries is the apparently deleterious induction of neutrophil apoptosis by the pseudomonas exotoxin pyocyanin, and recognition that pneumococcal clearance involves alveolar macrophage apoptosis. She has also made important observations concerning molecular control of neutrophil cell death. In addition to her major contribution to respiratory research she has provided the clinical academic community with sterling service, as a member of the Wellcome Trust Clinical Interest Group, the basic science interest group and since 2002 as a member of the Physiology and Pharmacology Panel. Moira has built a team of young clinician scientists working in the field of inflammation and infection. She is a clinician scientist of real academic distinction with a commitment to training young clinician scientists, an enthusiasm for serving the community and – in a very modest way – would undoubtedly be an exceptional role model for young women choosing to follow a path in clinical academia.