Prof John O'Shea - Public Lecture Award 2009

Prof O’Shea was the 2009 recipient of the Irish Society for Immunology Public Lecture Award. Each year the society celebrates an outstanding immunologist in recognition of their contribution to the understanding of immunology.

Prof O'Shea Public Lecture: “Learning from patients: how rare diseases inform immunology”

How doctors involved in medical research can learn a great deal from their own patients is the theme of a free public talk to be giving next month at the RDS Dublin by leading US immunologist, Prof John O’Shea.

The title for his presentation was: “Learning from patients: how rare diseases inform immunology”. Prof O’Shea was the 2009 recipient of the Irish Society for Immunology Public Lecture Award. Each year the society celebrates an outstanding immunologist in recognition of their contribution to the understanding of immunology.

The recipient is always asked to deliver a free public talk, organised by the RDS and The Irish Times in association with the Irish Society for Immunology, and this year’s talk by Prof O’Shea will be in the Merrion Room of the RDS.

He speaks with considerable authority as the scientific director of the Molecular Immunology and Inflammation Branch in the US National Institutes of Health. This centre looks at the underlying biochemical causes of common, debilitating auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Prof O’Shea discussed two rare immunodeficiency diseases to illustrate his talk. Learning the molecular basis of these diseases has offered new insights into ways to tackle related diseases by developing new immunosuppressant drugs to counter them.

By DICK AHLSTROM Science Editor.