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Monday April 07, 2025

Congratulations to Harry Horsnell
2024 ASI Travel Awardee

We warmly congratulate
Harry Horsnell
winner of the 2024 ASI Travel Award - Postdoctoral

 

My name is Harry Horsnell, and I started my career in immunology at University College London (UK) in the lab of Dr Sophie Acton. During my PhD I worked on understanding how stromal cells use physical forces to control the immune function of lymph nodes. To continue my research career, I moved to the Peter Doherty Institute (PDI) in September 2022. I joined Professor Scott Mueller’s laboratory funded by a EMBO international postdoctoral fellowship award. This has supported my transition into the International & Australian immunology research community and allowed me to continue my research of stromal cells in health and disease.

At the PDI my work has focused on understanding the interactions between stromal cells, immune cells and cancer metastasis. Metastasis to lymph nodes remains a strong indicator of poor clinical outcomes so I am working to understand the molecular and cellular players driving immune dysfunction at this phase of disease. I am passionate about my work and hope to use this time to discover new ways we can improve treatments for patients with metastasis.

Metastatic lymph node. B-cells (Cyan), T-cells (Magenta), Metastasis (Green)

I recently attended the 2^nd International Conference on Mesenchymal cells in health and disease in Crete (Greece). This is an important field specific conference with less than 100 attendees. This was an excellent opportunity for me to communicate my research on the international stage with eminent researchers in the field attending. The support from ASI in funding this travel has been invaluable. My time at this conference was very successful. I was pleased to be awarded a postdoctoral oral presentation prize by the organising committee. I was able to make connections with several senior researchers in the field, laying the foundations for future collaborations and grant applications. Beyond the academic aspect of this conference, I led the first ever early career researcher (ECR) session for the stromal scientific community. ASI’s support has therefore allowed me to disseminate my scientific work but also establish a core ECR network that will be essential for forming international collaborations and communicating my research findings as I progress through my career. I am extremely grateful for ASI’s support, and this will embolden my future NHMRC & ARC fellowship and grant applications.

Author: Harry Horsnell

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ASI