Denise Fitzgerald
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deefitzgerald.bsky.social
Denise Fitzgerald
@deefitzgerald.bsky.social
Interested in how the immune system influences tissue damage and regeneration in the central nervous system. Prof of Neuroimmunology at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. Particular interest in oligodendrocytes, myelin, Tregs. Views my own.
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
🎂 What a nice b-day surprise: 🏆 Congrats to Chengyu Zou on this timely and outstanding Cell Perspective on regulatory T cells.
🧬 Perfectly aligned with the Nobel spotlight on Tregs.

Source:
Zou C. et al., Cell (2026).

authors.elsevier.com/c/1mPZDL7PXu...
January 8, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
🔬 PhD Opportunity in Cancer Cell Biology 🔬
Are you an enthusiastic and ambitious scientist looking for a PhD project in cancer cell biology? Apply to join as a PhD student in Emma Evergren's group to help tackle fundamental questions in cancer cell biology.

Apply by 30 January
lnkd.in/eDrBp-J9
January 5, 2026 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
We're delighted that Professor Sarah Tabrizi (@uclqsion.bsky.social) is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025.
Her team's global trial at @ucl-hd.bsky.social showed a new Huntington’s treatment could slow progression by 75%.
‘Giant step forward’ for Huntington’s — the scientist behind the first gene therapy
Sarah Tabrizi is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025.
www.nature.com
December 10, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
In the year that Tregs get the respect they deserve - here is our contribution to help understand what regulates their homeostasis. One for lovers of cytokines and Tregs! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
December 10, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Congratulations!!
December 10, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
At AIMSRN2025, our team highlighted why the eye matters in MS research. Catch up on the talks via the YouTube links below - worth a watch!

Dr Gavin McDonnell
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUtm...

Dr. Michelle Naughton
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-f4...

Dr Lajos Csincsik
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE5D...
Could the eye be a window to the brain in MS? Dr. Michelle Naughton, Queens University Belfast
YouTube video by ALL Institute
www.youtube.com
July 19, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
Earlier this month, we trained on the new M2OCT at the NI Clinical Research Facility-thanks to Imagine Eyes! This hi-res tech will boost eye research in MS, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s & more, led by Queen’s University Belfast. Thanks to our funders incl. Jules Thorn Trust & iREACH Health! #MSResearchNI
July 19, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
Last week, Prof. Imre Lengyel and Dr. Lajos Csincsik joined the Eyes on the Brain meeting hosted by Optos in Edinburgh to explore how eye imaging and AI could help detect and monitor brain and nerve conditions, including MS. Thanks to Optos for the invitation and inspiring discussions!

#MS #retina
November 6, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
🔬 Last month, our NI MS Research Hub team shared how the retina may help us better understand Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

We presented at the World Sight Day & Pan-Ireland Ophthalmic Meeting in Belfast — a great chance to link eye and brain health to support people with MS. 👁️🧠

#MSResearchNI #WSD2025
November 6, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
🎉 Huge congrats to Nira for winning Best Postdoctoral Research Talk at the Irish Society of Immunology Conference in Galway! 👏

She presented exciting work on how the brain repairs itself in MS, highlighting immune receptors that support remyelination.

#MSResearchNI @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Can you add me to this starter pack please?
October 11, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
Join the Glia community on bluesky go.bsky.app/Lyzro3M
November 15, 2024 at 10:31 AM
Hugely deserved, congratulations 🎉🎉
October 9, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
I hope this Nobel Prize gets people talking meaningfully about our amazing immune systems and the importance of basic research to human health (and funding basic research).

I am also glad young women get to see that women can not only work at this level, but that those who do can get recognized.
October 7, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
Oh how sad

Really a towering figure, whose work laid the ground for stem cells, regenerative biology etc

I go to know him well over many years and he was definitely one-of a-kind...
October 8, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Great summary on the back story to this year's Nobel Prize
A small primer on the #NobelPrize awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi today. This prize was for combining two separate fields of immunology research - genetic research on IPEX and immunology research of regulatory T cells (#Tregs), with enormous impact on biology/medicine
October 6, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Huge congratulations Prof Dooley - delighted to hear of this so well deserved recognition!
October 5, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Phenomenal achievement
September 24, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Then moving from high to low budget (common at new PI stage) coupled with lots of unforeseen costs if setting up a new lab and the 'what if I mess this up' concern can make spending decisions challenging
September 20, 2025 at 8:22 AM
I've experienced both and moving from low budget to high took some adjustment. More money to spend but greater expectations and shorter time frames for delivery.
September 20, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Fantastic thread on budgeting from @labliston.bsky.social . Great advice for new (and not so new!) PIs. I would add awareness of how psychology impacts spending based on moving from low budget to high budget setting and vice versa....
🧵How to write and manage your first research budgets

The point of funding is to convert it into quality research. A well-spent research budget should fund the idea it was raised on, plus revision experiments, plus preliminary data for the next grant. So you need to spend, while avoiding waste.
September 20, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
For our #flowcytometry peeps, would you like to have a single fix/perm protocol that is optimised for everything? One that preserves fluorophores while allowing simultaneous TF and cytokine staining? How about 100-fold cheaper?

You got it:
currentprotocols.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
currentprotocols.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 19, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Love this!
September 20, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
Step inside an immersive experience to learn about the global threat of antimicrobial resistant infections, how bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics and the research from @wwiem-qub.bsky.social at @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social to fight it.

Where: W5, 2 Queens Quay Belfast
When: 1st-15th Sep
August 26, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Denise Fitzgerald
Very promising news on the next seven-year EU budget, with a proposed substantial increase for Horizon Europe including the ERC.

We are analysing the other parts of this proposal in more detail.

@Vonderleyen @EZaharievaEU

research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-res...
Horizon Europe 2028 - 2034: twice bigger, simpler, faster and more impactful
Research and innovation news alert: As part of the next long-term EU budget 2028-2034, the Commission is proposing to double the budget of the research and innovation framework programme to €175 billi...
research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu
July 23, 2025 at 7:49 PM