Meet the McSorley Lab!

I’m very lucky to have such a great team – I try to help them out, give advice, and lend a hand in the lab when things get really bad. I’m interested in how worms interact with the immune system – how they affect host immune responses, and how the immune system responds to them.

I'm currently looking into the IL-33/ST2 axis, particularly the role of ST2 within the intestinal epithelium, either within the context of in vivo H. polygyrus infection, or in the context of excretory secretory products ex vivo.

The lab's worm molecule hunter, I'm on a quest to learn about our lab pet's secrets, trying to identify new immunomodulatory molecules from H. polygyrus and assess if they can be exploited as therapeutics for inflammatory diseases.

I work on helminth immunomodulators and am currently screening nanobody libraries, monoclonal antibodies and performing vaccination studies in order to understand what blocking some of these parasite molecules means to the worm’s survival in its host.

As the lab's technician, I do anything and everything needed to help keep the lab running smoothly on a day-to-day basis.

The mast cell enthusiast of the lab – I look at how mast cells in the gut may be modulated by H. polygyrus and distal skin damage, as well as the consequences of such modulation in the context of food allergy and helminth infection.

I am working on characterising parasite proteins at the molecular level and am currently very focused on the HpARI protein family and its role in the regulation of the IL-33 response.

I look at signalling molecules of the immune system and how they contribute to inflammatory diseases such as obesity. My PhD project aims to study the cause of such diseases, then attempt to resolve inflammation by using immuno-modulators derived from parasitic helminths.

I'm currently investigating how the cytokines IL-25, IL-33, and TSLP shape idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis pathology while also researching how H. polygyrus secretions can block these pro-inflammatory cytokines to halt lung disease.