Following a highly competitive call, we are delighted to announce that Dr Tetsuo Hasegawa at the University of Cambridge has been awarded a prestigious Kennedy Trust Senior Research Fellowship of £1.9m over five years.
The Senior Research Fellowship scheme was launched in 2017 to support promising independent researchers with a proven track record of excellence in any scientific discipline relevant to the field of rheumatology or related musculoskeletal disease. Five Fellowships have since been awarded to the following talented individuals:
- Dr John Grainger (University of Manchester)
- Professor Adam Croft (University of Birmingham)
- Dr Rebecca Gentek (University of Edinburgh)
- Dr Sinisa Savic (University of Leeds)
- Dr Lizzy Rosser (University College London)
Dr Hasegawa’s Fellowship will explore the role of neuroimmune interaction in the development of arthritis and immune-driven pain.
The project will generate 3D molecular atlas of the synovium using his unique imaging system and investigate questions why joints are responsive to a variety of systemic pathologies, how communications between synovial cells and nociceptors influence disease progression, or what mechanisms underlie immune-driven pain in the joints. The findings from this research will provide new strategies to target neuroimmune interactions in arthritis and joint pain.
On receiving the award, Dr Hasegawa commented, “I am deeply honored and humbled to receive the Kennedy Trust Senior Research Fellowship and grateful to the selection committee for this opportunity. I have been always fascinated by the elaborate microarchitecture of the synovium and will fully devote myself to contribute to the field of rheumatology and patients suffering from arthritis.”
Dr Stephen Simpson, CEO of the Kennedy Trust, added “On behalf of the Kennedy Trust, I am delighted that Tetsuo has been successful in being awarded one of our Senior Research Fellowships. These are the Trust’s flagship awards and Tetsuo’s research has been evaluated through a highly competitive process as having great promise in furthering the understanding of the mechanisms of inflammation and pain, which are hallmarks of inflammatory arthritis. We welcome him to the family of Kennedy Trust funded researchers and look forward to seeing him progress in his career as a part of a new generation of clinician scientists.”
For more information about the Kennedy Trust’s Senior Research Fellowship scheme, please click here.
