The 2020 ACTERIA Prizes were awarded to two young scientists who surely will play a leading role Europe's immunology and allergology fields. EJI contacted the winners for a short Q&A to find out how they became involved in their research field, what they are currently working on and their future perspectives.

Ai Ing Lim

France, nominated by the French Society for Immunology (SFI) for her dissertation on “Cytokine Control of Human Innate Lymphoid Cells Development and Function” was awarded the ACTERIA Prize for immunology.

1. What does this Award mean to you?

This prestigious award definitely boosts my confidence for my scientific career. It recognizes my contribution to immunology and will support my research to the next step. I am and will always be very grateful for the training that I received in France. This award and my scientific experiences at Institut Pasteur are true gifts and concretely support my career.

2. What inspired you to enter scientific research?

I view science as an adventure into the unknown. Early on in my education, I was amazed by how a single cell can emerge into an entire human body. Developmental biology is close to my heart, but I am also fascinated how a hematopoietic stem cell can give rise to diverse immune cell subsets with different roles in our body. Therefore, I am deeply interested in developmental immunology. Along the way, the driving forces were simply curiosity and passion to reveal the extraordinary details of our body.

3. What is the current focus of your work?

After studying human ILC development, I found there are many questions that remain unclear in basic developmental immunology, which are fundamental for clinical settings. In particular, a huge gap remains in understanding the balance between maternal and fetal adaptation during healthy and aberrant pregnancies. Therefore, my current research focuses on understanding maternal‐fetal immune crosstalk in the context of transient infection, which is a common occurrence during pregnancy even in the absence of obvious developmental issues.

4. Who has been inspirational/influential with regard to your scientific career?

Both of my mentors, James Di Santo and Yasmine Belkaid have been vitally important for their cherished influences on my scientific thinking. I have been incredibly fortunate to work alongside many impressive scientists from diverse backgrounds, with distinct personalities and outstanding skills. Learning the best from each other is one thing I enjoy the most in science. Several remarkable scientists that I have met from different fields, including Hans Yssel, Janet Rossant and Elizabeth Blackburn, have been my amazing role models too.

5. What are the next steps for you?

For the next steps, I aim to move towards research independence, to explore how environmental exposures during pregnancy link to the developmental origin of health and disease in offspring. I attempt to combine my PhD training in human immunology with current postdoctoral training in murine tissue immunology to answer fundamental questions in maternal‐fetal immune crosstalk.

Martijn Schuijs

Belgium, nominated by the Belgian Immunological Society (BIS) for his thesis on “The Pathogenesis of House Dust Mite‐driven Asthma: From Barn to Bedside” was awarded the ACTERIA Prize for allergology.

1. What does this Award mean to you?

I would like to start with taking the opportunity to thank ACTERIA foundation and the EFIS selection committee for this award. Winning this prestigious prize at this stage of my career is fantastic and is an extra boost for my research. I would like to extend my thanks to the Belgian Immunological Society for nominating me and I am proud to represent them. Besides the exposure and the recognition for my work, the award provides me with the opportunity to develop as an independent researcher and pursue my own line of research.

2. What inspired you to enter scientific research?

Ever since high school I was very interested in the complexity of the human body. I chose to study Biomedical Sciences at University and it was there that I got really excited by the immune system and how our body is able to fight infections, but also how the immune system could spiral out of control. As I very much like to get down to the nitty gritty, I was fortunate to land a PhD position in the lab of Prof. Bart Lambrecht at VIB in Belgium. He really inspired me to be creative and pushed the boundaries in my projects. His enthusiasm for science and his great mentorship has made me realize how rewarding scientific research can be, personally and hopefully also for the patients down the line.

3. What is the current focus of your work?

I am currently finalizing postoc at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute (Univeristy of Cambridge, UK), where my work is focused on the role of ILC2‐driven allergic lung inflammation in the development of lung metastases. In this project, I could show that lung ILC2 were critical for establishing an environment that was conducive for metastasis engraftment, by the induction of lung eosinophilia. It turned out that eosinophil influx in the lung changed the local metabolic environment, especially the availability of glucose and the increase in lactate levels, which dampened the ability of lung NK cells to produce interferon‐gamma. Collectively, these findings suggest that tissue‐resident ILC2 can dampen anti‐tumor immunity, through an innate immune pathway.

4. Who has been inspirational/influential with regard to your scientific career?

During my master's degree I had, and still have, really benefitted from the advice of Prof. Peter Openshaw, who has been an inspiration and strongly supported me throughout my studies. Also, I was fortunate to have inspirational mentors throughout both my doctoral (Prof. Bart Lambrecht, VIB, Ghent, Belgium) and postdoctoral studies (Dr. Tim Halim, CRUK‐CI, Cambridge, UK). Besides, I have also been strongly supported by my great colleagues, who share passion for science and were always there to discuss results and provide valuable feedback.

5. What are the next steps for you?

The ACTERIA doctoral thesis prize provides me with the opportunity to move back to VIB and start to develop my own lines of research. I am looking forward to establishing collaborations with some of the many great scientist whom I have met over the last years, at VIB as well as abroad. Ultimately, I hope to establish my own lab and develop into an independent researcher.

中文翻译：

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与2020年ACTERIA博士论文奖获奖者进行问答

2020年ACTERIA奖授予了两位年轻的科学家，他们肯定将在欧洲的免疫学和过敏学领域发挥领导作用。EJI与获奖者联系以进行简短的问答，以了解他们如何参与研究领域，他们目前正在从事什么工作以及未来的前景。

林爱英

法国因其“人类先天淋巴样细胞发育和功能的细胞因子控制”论文而获得法国免疫学学会（SFI）提名，并获得了ACTERIA免疫学奖。

1.该奖项对您意味着什么？

这个享有盛誉的奖项肯定会增强我对科学事业的信心。它肯定了我对免疫学的贡献，并将支持我的下一步研究。我一直以来都会非常感谢我在法国接受的培训。这个奖项和我在巴斯德研究所的科学经验是真正的礼物，并切实支持我的职业生涯。

2.是什么促使您进入科学研究的？

我认为科学是探索未知的冒险。在我的教育初期，我惊讶于单个细胞如何出现在整个人体中。发育生物学接近我的心脏，但我也着迷于造血干细胞如何产生在人体中具有不同作用的各种免疫细胞亚群。因此，我对发育免疫学非常感兴趣。在此过程中，驱动力仅仅是好奇心和激情，以揭示我们身体的非凡细节。

3.您目前的工作重点是什么？

在研究了人类ILC的发展之后，我发现在基本的发展免疫学中还有许多尚不清楚的问题，这些问题对于临床环境至关重要。特别是，在健康和异常怀孕期间，了解母体和胎儿适应之间的平衡仍然存在巨大差距。因此，我目前的研究重点是在短暂感染的背景下理解母婴免疫串扰，即使在没有明显发育问题的情况下，这也是怀孕期间的常见现象。

4.谁对您的科学职业生涯具有启发性/影响力？

我的两位导师James Di Santo和Yasmine Belkaid对于他们对我的科学思维的珍贵影响都至关重要。我非常幸运地与许多来自不同背景，具有鲜明个性和杰出技能的杰出科学家一起工作。彼此学习最好是我在科学领域最喜欢的一件事。我从不同领域结识的几位杰出科学家，包括汉斯·伊塞尔（Hans Yssel），珍妮特·罗森（Janet Rossant）和伊丽莎白·布莱克本（Elizabeth Blackburn），也是我令人赞叹的榜样。

5.您接下来要做什么？

对于下一步，我的目标是朝着独立研究的方向发展，以探讨怀孕期间的环境暴露如何与后代健康和疾病的发展起源联系起来。我试图将我在人类免疫学方面的博士学位培训与目前在鼠类组织免疫学方面的博士后培训相结合，以回答母婴免疫串扰方面的基本问题。

马丁·舒伊斯（Martijn Schuijs）

由比利时免疫学协会（BIS）提名的比利时“室内尘螨引起的哮喘的发病机理：从谷仓到床边”的论文获得了ACTERIA过敏学奖。

1.该奖项对您意味着什么？

首先，我想借此机会感谢ACTERIA基金会和EFIS评选委员会的奖项。在我职业生涯的这一阶段赢得这一享有盛誉的奖项，真是太棒了，这对我的研究是一个额外的推动。我要感谢比利时免疫学会提名我，我很荣幸能代表他们。除了对我的作品的曝光和认可外，该奖项还为我提供了发展成为独立研究人员并追求自己的研究方向的机会。

2.是什么促使您进入科学研究的？

从高中开始，我就对人体的复杂性非常感兴趣。我选择在大学学习生物医学，在那里，免疫系统以及人体如何抵抗感染以及免疫系统如何失控使我感到非常兴奋。我非常想了解具体情况，因此很幸运能够在比利时VIB的Bart Lambrecht教授的实验室获得博士学位。他的确激发了我的创造力，并突破了我的项目界限。他对科学的热情和出色的指导使我意识到，个人和希望对下线患者的科学研究是多么有益。

3.您目前的工作重点是什么？

我目前正在英国癌症研究中心剑桥学院（英国剑桥大学）完成研究生课程，在那里我的工作重点是ILC2驱动的过敏性肺部炎症在肺转移发生中的作用。在这个项目中，我可以证明，通过诱导肺嗜酸性粒细胞增多，肺ILC2对于建立有利于转移移植的环境至关重要。事实证明，肺中的嗜酸性粒细胞流入改变了局部代谢环境，尤其是葡萄糖的可用性和乳酸水平的升高，这削弱了肺NK细胞产生干扰素-γ的能力。总而言之，这些发现表明，驻留在组织中的ILC2可通过先天免疫途径减弱抗肿瘤免疫力。

4.谁对您的科学职业生涯具有启发性/影响力？

在攻读硕士学位期间，我曾经而且现在仍然从Peter Openshaw教授的建议中受益匪浅，他一直是我的灵感，并在我的整个学习过程中给予了我大力支持。此外，我很幸运在我的博士学位（比利时根特VIB的Bart Lambrecht教授）和博士后研究（CRUK-CI的Tim Halim博士，英国剑桥）上都有鼓舞人心的导师。此外，我也得到了我的同事们的大力支持，他们对科学充满热情，并且总是在那里讨论结果并提供宝贵的反馈意见。

5.您接下来要做什么？

ACTERIA博士论文奖为我提供了回到VIB并开始发展自己的研究领域的机会。我期待与过去几年中在VIB以及在国外见过的许多伟大科学家中的一些建立合作。最终，我希望建立自己的实验室并发展成为一名独立研究人员。