Lecture Title: The developing human immune system
Muzlifah Haniffa is a Wellcome Senior Clinical Research Fellow, Interim Head of Cellular Genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Professor of Dermatology and Immunology at Newcastle University. She graduated from medical school in Cardiff, trained as a junior doctor in Cambridge and received her dermatology specialist training in Newcastle. Muzlifah is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Member of EMBO, and a recipient of the Academy of Medical Sciences Foulkes Foundation Medal and the European Federation of Immunological Societies ACTERIA Prize in Immunology and Allergology. She has pioneered the application of single cell genomics to decode the developing human immune system across organs and developmental stages, and to understand cell and tissue dynamics in human skin in health and disease, work that included a landmark discovery that developmental programmes are co-opted in two common adult inflammatory skin diseases, atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.
She has also made fundamental insights into other diseases such as infant and childhood leukaemia and COVID-19. Muzlifah is a leading member of the Human Cell Atlas initiative, and as co-ordinator of the HCA Development Network she plays a critical role in supporting this burgeoning network of international scientists. She participates widely in the scientific community, including as a Trustee of the Foulkes Foundation, sitting on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Lister Institute, and acting as co-Director of the Wellcome Doctoral Programme (4Ward North).
