Prof Kate Fitzgerald, Irish immunologist elected to US National Academy of Sciences
Many congratulations to Prof Kate Fitzgerald, Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) on her election to the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in recognition of her many research achievements in the field of innate immunity.
Research in the Fitzgerald lab is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling the inflammatory process. Fitzgerald and her team use immunology, biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics to determine how the immune system discriminates between pathogens and host molecules to both protect the host from infection and avoid damaging inflammatory diseases.
Originally from Waterford, Prof Fitzgerald has studied biochemistry at University College Cork before obtaining her PhD from Trinity College Dublin under the supervision of Prof Luke O’Neill. She joined the UMASS faculty as an assistant professor in 2001. Prof Fitzgerald was the 2011 ISI Public Lecture Awardee and delivered a public lecture entitled ‘The Offensive Side of Immune Defences’. Read more about this here.
The US National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit society of distinguished scholars is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. The Academy elected 120 new members on April 26 2021, including a record 59 women and 30 international members.