Research group of Clare Lloyd

Immune Cell Interactions in the Lung   •  Allergic Inflammation and Remodelling
Inflammation, Repair & Development, NHLI, Imperial College London
Our research
Who we are
Our publications
Our alumni
Our funders
Our collaborators

Lab news

New review out!

Clare and Sejal have written a review for Nature Immunology. Follow the link below to have a read!

Early-life respiratory infections and developmental immunity determine lifelong lung health

 

ACTERIA Early Career Prize Winner
BHF CRE Fellow Régis Joulia 

We are incredibly proud of Régis for winning the 2023 ACTERIA Early Career Research Prize in Allergology,  awarded by the European Federation of Immunological Societies. 

Read more about what the prize entails and Régis’ exciting research that earned him the award on the ACTERIA website here

Congrats again – very well deserved!

Our researchers – Making Waves

The National Heart and Lung Institute has recently launched a project to celebrate inspirational people across NHLI – and we are beyond proud to see our very own Simone and Maike among these. 

What an amazing initiative to showcase who NHLI is today and to update the imagery across our campuses.

Simone has long been an inspiration to us all in the Lloyd lab and now you can be inspired by her, too – click here for her full story

Also read more about how Maike and her fellow PhD student Salina are “Making Waves” here & check out their amazing podcast Elevat(her)!

New review on Th2 cells in asthma

Clare and James have written a review on Th2 cells in asthma for the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Read it here. 

Con-GRAD-ulations! 

Well done to Helen and Gesa who celebrated their PhD graduation ceremony in the Royal Albert Hall on 3 May 2023. As you can see – it takes a village to raise a child PhD student. 

Breathing easy: Dopamine quenches the ILC2 flame

Franz and Clare have written a preview for Immunity highlighting a recent study by Cao et al. on the role of dopamine in restricting ILC2 response during asthma. 

Follow the link below to read the original study.

Dopamine inhibits group 2 innate lymphoid cell-driven allergic lung inflammation by dampening mitochondrial activity

Congratulations Dr Stölting!

Helen successfully defended her PhD thesis – and she’s got the German PhD hat to prove it!

We’re absolutely thrilled for you and very happy to keep you with us a little longer as a postdoc.

IRD Christmas Lunch 2022

Thank you to our students Christina, Will and Leia for organising a fantastic Christmas Lunch for the Inflammation, Repair & Development (IRD) section. 

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year from all of us in the Lloyd lab! 

Another year – another BSI!

We had such a fun time at #BSI22, full of talks, posters & fascinating science, old friends & new, early morning runs & late night parties and generally a whole lot of fun! 

Can’t wait for #BSI23 – see you in Belfast!

Craft a virus – Engaging the public
at Science Museum Lates

Christina, Helen, Shwetha, Simone and Will (plus Gesa from the Byrne lab and James Harker) joined the team of BSI Volunteers at the Science Museum Lates opening of “Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine” exhibition to chat to visitors about science, viruses & vaccines and fold some amazing origami viruses. Such great fun!

BHF Reflections of Research image competition
Judge’s Winner & Supporter’s Favourite

Congratulations to Régis for winning the British Heart Foundation’s annual image competition with this amazing image titled “A flare of stellar vessels”, showing blood vessels (in red), mast cells (in green) and pericytes (in blue) within a human lung. 

Absolutely stunning and a prize well deserved! 

You can read more about Régis’ research as a BHF research Fellow as well as about the other entrants here.

EFIS Immunology Letters Lecture Award

Clare has recently been awarded the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) Immunology Letters lecture award during the Irish Society for Immunology (ISI) annual meeting in Maynooth. 

Congratulations Clare!

 

Distinguished Service Award

Congratulations to Clare for being recognised as Distinguished Service Award recipient by the Society for Mucosal Immunology during ICMI 2022. 

 We made the cover of Mucosal Immunology!

Beautiful image captured by Helen of paediatric bronchial epithelial cells infected with SARS-CoV2 at 5 days post-infection. SARS-CoV2 NP (magenta), MUC5AC (yellow) and KRT5 (cyan).

Stölting et al., Mucosal Immunology (2022)

 

Using Air-liquid Interface (ALI) cultures of primary bronchial epithelial cells from healthy children and adults, we investigated susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and H1N1 infection, and epithelial antiviral immune responses according to age and virus.

Goodbye & Good Luck!

We are sad to see two of our much valued team members leave but both are embarking on new and exciting paths.

Charlotte is leaving us to start her NIHR Academic Clinical fellowship at Imperial in Histopathology, we wish her all the best and hope to see her in the lab again in the not too distant future!

Phebe is leaving us to start her Masters at Johns Hopkins as well as becoming a Fulbright Scholar! Huge Congratulations and we wish you the best of luck!

 PhD Viva Success!

Congratulations Dr Albers!

Well deserved! 

By Helen Stölting

Scientific Writing Competition


Congratulations Helen!

Helen showcased her creative writing skills when describing her current PhD project and came joint 3rd in the 2022  Scientific Writing Competition run by Imperial’s Graduate School.

 NHLI Away Day!

A great day for the Lloyd Lab with excellent presentations from Kunyuan, Kornelija and Gesa. Extra congratulations to Gesa for winning a presentation prize! 

Pseudomonas aeruginosa: a pathogen making itself at home

Helen and Clare have written a spotlight for Trends in Immunology highlighting a recent study by the Medzhitov lab. Follow the link below to read the original study.

Tissue remodeling by an opportunistic pathogen triggers allergic inflammation

Imperial People

Very proud to see Phebe featured in the Imperial People series. 

“There’s such a welcoming group of people with a healthy attitude to lunch –and the idea that breaking bread builds communities.”

Click here to read the full article.

Elevat(Her) Podcast SE3 EP2: Leadership in Academia by our very own Clare Lloyd

We have long been in awe of our PhD student Maike and her colleague Salina and their amazing, truly inspiring podcast Elevat(Her), which empowers its listeners by discussing common barriers women face across all fields and providing real-life tips from high-achieving women. 

It’s even more amazing to see our very own Clare featured in the most recent episode of the podcast, where she shares her journey to becoming the successful scientist and mentor she is today, the lessons she learned along the way and how she incorporates these in her leadership style. Find the episode on the Elevat(Her) website here or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Congratulations Helen & Gesa!

IRD was well represented at the recent European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Winter School 2022, by four PhD students, Gesa, Will, Lucia & Helen from the Lloyd, Saglani, Byrne and Harker labs.  Unfortunately, the meeting couldn’t be held in person, but this didn’t stop Helen and Gesa winning prizes for their oral presentations, well done all!

 

Immuno-proteomic profiling reveals aberrant immune cell regulation in the airways of individuals with ongoing post-COVD-19 respiratory disease

A great partnership and collaborative effort from a multidisciplinary team has culminated in this exciting study that has shown COVID-19 patients experiencing breathlessness, months after hospitalisation, have ongoing cellular changes and evidence of damage markers in their lungs.
 

 Lloyd lab goes BSI21!

As always, we had an amazing time at the British Society for Immunology Congress 2021 in Edinburgh.
See you in Liverpool next year!

PhD Viva Success – Richard Hewitt

Congratulations to Richard for recently defending his thesis and successfully securing an NIHR Clinical Lecturer position at ICL. We are all thrilled for you!

Welcoming New Lab Members

The Lloyd lab is excited to welcome new team members as we begin a new Wellcome funded research programme.

Some new and old members of the team are pictured on the left as part of a recent photoshoot c/o Imperial Photography. 

BSI London Immunology Group

Neuro-/Stromal-Immunology Meeting

Francis Crick Institute

Members of the Lloyd lab enjoyed attending this very informative meeting in person! 

 

Congratulations Régis!

Régis Joulia recently started a BHF funded fellowship within the Lloyd lab, investigating the interactions between mast cells and pericytes in the context of lung inflammation. Régis presented some early data from this project and won the poster prize!

October 2021

Review on the regulation of immune responses by airway epithelial cells

Check out the new review on airway epithelial immune responses by Richard Hewitt and Clare Lloyd!

Regulation of immune responses by the airway epithelial cell landscape

January 2021

Review on the respiratory microbiome and epithelial interactions

Read our new review about the lung microbiome and epithelial interactions by Rachele Invernizzi, Clare Lloyd and Phil Molyneaux here:

Respiratory microbiome and epithelial interactions shape immunity in the lungs

March 2020

William MacNee Award (ERS LSC Young Investigator Award)

We congratulate our PhD student Patricia Ogger who presented her PhD workat the ERS Lung Science Conference in Estoril, Portugal, and got selected for the William MacNee Award for the best young investigator presentation. Well done!

March 2020

European Respiratory Society
Lung Science Conference 2020

Three of our PhD students got the opportunity to attend the ERS Lung Science Conference “Metabolic alterations in lung ageing and disease” in Estoril, Portugal, supported by the ERS bursary scheme.

Gesa Albers and Rachele Invernizzi presented their research as a poster and Patricia Ogger presented in the Young Investigator session.

March 2020

Science Immunology Cover of the Year

This image titled “Amoeboid Prowling by Lung ILC2s” generated by our Postdoc Franz Puttur was selected as the Science Immunology Cover of the Year 2019.

Read the full paper on how pulmonary environmental cues drive group 2 innate lymphoid cell dynamics here:

Pulmonary environmental cues drive group 2 innate lymphoid cell dynamics in mice and humans

December 2019

British Society for Immunology Congress in Liverpool

This year’s BSI Congress has been a great outing for the Lloyd lab! Four of our PhD students received BSI travel bursaries (Gesa Albers, Helen Stölting, Nicoletta Bruno & Patricia Ogger) and presented posters/talks.

Our PhD student Gesa Albers won a Poster Prize for her poster presentation and Postdoc William Branchett won runner-up of the Brightsparks Postdoc competition. Well done both!

December 2019

BALR Young Investigator Award

Congratulations to our PhD student Patricia Ogger, who has been selected as the British Association for Lung Research (BALR) Young Investigator of the Year 2019 after presenting in the Young Investigator Award Symposium at the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting!

December 2019

Opening The Window Of Immune Opportunity: Treating Childhood Asthma

Read the new review by Prof. Clare Lloyd and Prof. Sejal Saglani about treatment options of childhood asthma here:

Lloyd and Saglani, Trends in Immunology (2019)

September 2019

New paper out in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology!

The PhD work of our Postdoc William Branchett is finally out there!

Read all about the T-cell-myeloid IL-10 axis in a mouse model of Type-2-low asthma here:

A T cell–myeloid IL-10 axis regulates pathogenic IFN-γ–dependent immunity in a mouse model of type 2–low asthma

August 2019

Julia Higgins Award

We are very proud to announce that Professor Clare Lloyd and Professor Sara Rankin have been awarded the Julia Higgins Award in recognition of their significant contribution to the support of academic women.

The Julia Higgins Medal and Awards are awarded annually to recognise individuals, groups, and departments that have made a significant contribution to the support of academic women at the College.

June 2019

Academy of Medical Sciences elects six new fellows from Imperial College London

Professor Lloyd said: “I am delighted and honoured to be elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences. It reflects the hard work and commitment of all the talented students, postdocs, fellows and colleagues I have been fortunate to work with over the years. I look forward to working with other Fellows to advance biomedical and health research, particularly helping early career researchers achieve their potential”.

Read the full article here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/191158/academy-medical-sciences-elects-fellows-from/

May 2019

Graduation 2019

Congratulations to our Lloyd lab and IRD students who graduated today!

Faith Uwadiae and Sarah Allden were awarded their PhD’s today and we had two prizes awarded to our MSc Immunology students: The Richard Batchelor Prize to Simone Wolf for the best Master’s Thesis and the Dean’s prize to Helen Stoelting for best overall performance. Well done everyone!

May 2019

New paper out in Blue Journal!

Adam’s first senior author paper is out online this week:

The transferrin receptor CD71 delineates functionally distinct airway macrophage subsets during Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. 

Sarah J Allden et al., AJRCCM (2019)

May 2019

New Review out in Mucosal Immunology!

Regulatory cytokine function in the respiratory tract. 

William J Branchett & Clare M Lloyd

Check it out here: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41385-019-0158-0

May 2019