Catherine Sabatel receives the McKinsey 2018 Award for her thesis on the characterization of regulatory pulmonary macrophages and their impact on respiratory allergies


Catherine Sabatel, a PhD student at GIGA-R, has just been awarded the 2018 McKinsey Prize for her promising research in the field of respiratory allergies, and in particularly in therapeutic strategies for the treatment of asthma.

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he young researcher received the McKinsey Prize on the 29 November 29 2018 for her thesis entitled: Ontogenic, phenotypic and functional characterization of pulmonary interstitial macrophages after exposure to baterians. Catherine Sabatel's research focuses on the mechanisms associated with the onset of allergies, with a particular focus on allergic asthma, one of the most common forms of the disease, which, as her name suggests, is linked to an allergic reaction of the respiratory tract to environmental allergens. By using a mouse model of allergic asthma, the young researcher was able to show that the adoptive transfer of interstitial macrophages, induced by bacterial DNA (DNA-CpG), protects against the development of asthma, whether they are administered before sensitization or the allergenic challenge. These results therefore constitute a possible mechanism by which exposure to an environment rich in microbial compounds protects against the development of asthma and could be used as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of asthma.

McKinsey & Company Scientific Award

The McKinsey & Company Scientific Prize is awarded annually by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS-FNRS) to two candidates from a university in the Walloon Federation and the Flemish Community, at the initiative of McKinsey & Company. These prizes are awarded to researchers who can demonstrate the social and economic relevance of their thesis or its concrete applicability. The doctorate must have been completed in one of the fields related to the exact sciences, applied sciences, social, economic or management sciences and biomedical sciences.

The McKinsey & Company Scientific Award is particularly encouraging for young researchers as it suggests that their fundamental research, although at the beginning of the process in the search for new therapies, has a high probability of having a concrete impact at the societal level.

Consult Catherine SABATEL's thesis: https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/216269

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Catherine SABATEL

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