Gwenda Vasse received NRS Travel Grant

The NRS Travel Grant supported my attendance at the Keystone Symposium on The Resolution of Inflammation in Health and Disease (March 24-28, 2018, Dublin, Ireland). My PhD research focuses on the interactions between macrophages and the altered extracellular matrix in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The topic of this Keystone symposium corresponded very well with my research, as macrophages are important players in the resolution of inflammation and failure to resolve chronic inflammation can result in fibrosis. The program consisted of several Keynote lectures, short talks and poster sessions. Since only around 250 researchers participated in this conference, there were no parallel sessions. Therefore I had the chance to participate in sessions closely related to my work, as well as in sessions that broadened my view on the resolution of inflammation. Macrophage-specific topics were addressed by experts such as Christopher Glass and Marc Peters-Golden. Furthermore, I gained knowledge on the importance of pro-resolving lipid mediators and efferocytosis in the resolution of inflammation. My abstract on the effect of collagen morphology on macrophage behavior was accepted for a poster presentation. For two hours I had the opportunity to present my findings and discuss them with experts from diverse scientific backgrounds, resulting in various new insights and ideas for future experiments. The multiple poster sessions as well as the social hours allowed me to interact with other participants and expand my professional network. I can conclude that attending this conference was very useful and I would like to thank the NRS for making it possible.

Gwenda Vasse, PhD student 
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University Medical Center Groningen 
Department of Pharmacokinetics, Toxicology, and Targeting, University of Groningen