Dr Kirstie Bertram has specialised for over a decade in isolating immune cells from human tissue and interrogating them by high-parameter flow cytometry. In 2015, as a post-doctoral scientist, she optimised protocols for isolating myeloid cells (particularly dendritic cells and macrophages) from all human tissues physiologically relevant to HIV transmission, spanning skin, type I and type II mucosae (foreskin, labia, vagina, cervix, penile tissue, perineum, rectum). With the aim to keep them as immature and functionally intact as possible to investigate how they interact with HIV and HSV. Her work is located at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, part of the Westmead Health precinct. Now Dr Bertram has focused on how dendritic cells migrate into the epidermis and how their pattern recognition receptors and immunomodulatory molecules are influenced by their microenvironment. Gaining insights into how dendritic cells respond to viral and vaccine signals in the skin can lead to more precise and targeted therapies.
