SPOTLIGHT ON


Dr Stephen Renshaw


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The cells of our immune system are powerful allies in the fight against infection, but in the modern world they can cause damage when inappropriately activated.


The resulting inflammation is a key component of many disease processes,


and is a major cause of illness and death in the developed world. A particularly


important cell type, called neutrophils, has proved difficult to understand because


unlike many other cell types they cannot be genetically manipulated.


Dr Renshaw has developed a model


system in zebrafish, where neutrophil behaviour can be seen during


inflammation inside a living organism.


These zebrafish larvae can be genetically manipulated, to help us understand how neutrophils are controlled normally, and how this goes wrong in inflammatory disease.


The small size of these larvae also means that they can be used to look for new drugs that might be used to treat inflammatory diseases, and we are


currently looking through large libraries of compounds to try and find ones that might one day help treat our patients.


For more information see:


www.sheffield.ac.uk/medicine/ infectionandimmunity


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