Muzlifah Haniffa Explained

Muzlifah Haniffa
Birth Place:Penang, Malaysia
Alma Mater:Newcastle University
Fields:Dermatology, Immunology, Bioinformatics

Muzlifah Haniffa is a Malaysian dermatologist and immunologist who focuses on the development of the immune system and the use of single-cell techniques to understand biology. Haniffa is a professor and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University.[1] [2]

Early life and education

Haniffa was born in Penang, Malaysia.[3] Her interests in science as a child were piqued initially by space, but later she decided to pursue a career as a clinical scientist. Haniffa studied at Tunku Kurshiah College, Seremban and moved to the UK in the 1990s.[4] Haniffa graduated BSc, MBBCh from the University of Wales College of Medicine in 1999. She became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 2002. In 2007, she earned a diploma in epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She completed her PhD from Newcastle University in 2009 and completed her clinical dermatology training in 2010. She was runner-up for the 2009 Sue McCarthy Prize from the Medical Research Council.

Career

In 2013 the European Society for Dermatology Research awarded Haniffa a Silver Award for her research. She was shortlisted for the 2016 North Eastern Woman Entrepreneur of the Year awards in the STEM category.[5] In 2016 her research into the functions of white blood cells was boosted by a £200,000 fellowship by the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. Professor Chris Day, serving as vice-chancellor of the medical faculty, congratulated Haniffa on her achievement, saying:Haniffa's work on the immune system has included discovering that a population of what was considered dendritic cells (defined by the presence of CD14) in human skin were in fact macrophages, and studies demonstrating that a subset of dendritic cells exist in mice which can activate T helper 17 cells against a fungal infection.[6] [7] Haniffa was awarded the 2018 Early Career Prize in Allerlology by the 5th European Congress on Immunology.[8]

Haniffa is a member of the Human Cell Atlas, which aims to characterise all cells in the human body using single-cell transcriptomic techniques, alongside Sarah Teichmann, Fiona Powrie, Ashley Moffett, and others.[9] [10] [11] In 2018 her lab contributed to the discovery of the major subset of kidney cells which become mutated and give rise to kidney cancers. This was accomplished by matching the biological make-up of kidney carcinoma cells to given healthy kidney cells.[12] [13] [14] This was followed by a single-cell study of the placenta which discovered new cell sub-types in the decidua, informing understanding of how the maternal and fetal immune systems interact with each other and avoid miscarriage or pre-eclampsia.[15] [16] [17] The study used 70,000 cells and tissue from the Human Developmental Biology Resource. In addition Haniffa and collaborators have published single-cell studies on the innate and adaptive immune system, including regulatory T cells, dendritic cells, and monocytes.[18] [19] [20] [21] In 2019 the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced that it was investing $68 million in grants into furthering the Human Cell Atlas, including awards for Haniffa to study the immune system and liver during ageing in single-cell detail.[22] [23] [24]

She is a committee member of the British Society for Investigative Dermatology, who had awarded Haniffa a Junior Investigator Prize in 2012.[25]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Professor Muzlifah Haniffa . 10 June 2022 . Newcastle University.
  2. Web site: Penang-born scientist receives RM1.09mil for work on white blood cells - Nation The Star Online. Albakri. Danial. www.thestar.com.my. 2019-07-14.
  3. Web site: Penang-born scientist gets RM1m UK research award. Reporters. F. M. T.. 2016-09-11. Free Malaysia Today. 2019-07-14.
  4. Web site: This Malaysian Received A Prestigious Research Prize For Her Outstanding Scientific Work. Ruxyn. Tang. 2016-09-08. SAYS.com. 2019-07-14.
  5. Web site: Top businesswomen shortlisted in North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Whitfield. Graeme. 2016-10-05. nechronicle. 2019-07-14.
  6. Web site: Discovery of a new class of white blood cells uncovers target for better vaccine design. ScienceDaily. 2019-07-14.
  7. Haniffa. Muzlifah. Collin. Matthew. Ginhoux. Florent. Bigley. Venetia. Poidinger. Michael. Duan. Kaibo. Wasan. Pavandip Singh. Larbi. Anis. Miranda-Saavedra. Diego. 2014-09-18. Human Dermal CD14+ Cells Are a Transient Population of Monocyte-Derived Macrophages. Immunity. English. 41. 3. 465–477. 10.1016/j.immuni.2014.08.006. 1074-7613. 25200712. 4175180.
  8. Web site: Award Ceremonies. ECI 2018. 2019-07-14.
  9. Web site: Human Cell Atlas: we're funding scientists at six UK research institutes Wellcome. wellcome.ac.uk. 2019-07-14.
  10. Web site: Human Cell Atlas Takes First Steps Towards Understanding Human Development. Cell Science from Technology Networks. 2019-07-14.
  11. Regev. Aviv. Teichmann. Sarah A. Lander. Eric S. Amit. Ido. Benoist. Christophe. Birney. Ewan. Bodenmiller. Bernd. Campbell. Peter. Carninci. Piero. 2017-12-05. The Human Cell Atlas. eLife. 6. 10.7554/eLife.27041. 2050-084X. 5762154. 29206104 . free .
  12. Web site: New hope for patients with kidney cancer. The Northern Echo. 2019-07-14.
  13. Behjati . Sam . Clatworthy . Menna . Menna Clatworthy . Teichmann . Sarah A. . Haniffa . Muzlifah . Coleman . Nicholas . Sebire . Neil . Stewart . Grant D. . Warren . Anne Y. . Lindsay . Susan . 2018-08-10 . Single-cell transcriptomes from human kidneys reveal the cellular identity of renal tumors . Science . 361 . 6402 . 594–599 . 2018Sci...361..594Y . 10.1126/science.aat1699 . 0036-8075 . 6104812 . 30093597.
  14. Web site: Single-Cell Transcriptome Atlas Elucidates Features Shared by Cancerous, Normal Kidneys. GenomeWeb. 9 August 2018 . 2019-07-14.
  15. Web site: Human cell atlas study reveals maternal immune system modifications in early pregnancy: Cell map of healthy pregnancy could also help understand miscarriages or pre-eclampsia. ScienceDaily. 2019-07-14.
  16. Teichmann. Sarah A.. Moffett. Ashley. Haniffa. Muzlifah. Stubbington. Michael J. T.. Wright. Gavin J.. Bulmer. Judith N.. Rowitch. David H.. Filby. Andrew. Lisgo. Steve. November 2018. Single-cell reconstruction of the early maternal–fetal interface in humans. Nature. 563. 7731. 347–353. 10.1038/s41586-018-0698-6. 30429548. 7612850 . 2018Natur.563..347V. 53302717. 1476-4687.
  17. Web site: The Very First Human Cell Atlas Study of Early Pregnancy. Cell Science from Technology Networks. 2019-07-14.
  18. Miragaia. Ricardo J.. Gomes. Tomás. Chomka. Agnieszka. Jardine. Laura. Riedel. Angela. Hegazy. Ahmed N.. Whibley. Natasha. Tucci. Andrea. Chen. Xi. February 2019. Single-Cell Transcriptomics of Regulatory T Cells Reveals Trajectories of Tissue Adaptation. Immunity. 50. 2. 493–504.e7. 10.1016/j.immuni.2019.01.001. 6382439. 30737144.
  19. See. Peter. Dutertre. Charles-Antoine. Chen. Jinmiao. Günther. Patrick. McGovern. Naomi. Irac. Sergio Erdal. Gunawan. Merry. Beyer. Marc. Händler. Kristian. 2017-06-09. Mapping the human DC lineage through the integration of high-dimensional techniques. Science. 356. 6342. eaag3009. 10.1126/science.aag3009. 28473638. 206651407. 0036-8075. 7611082.
  20. Villani. Alexandra-Chloé. Satija. Rahul. Reynolds. Gary. Sarkizova. Siranush. Shekhar. Karthik. Fletcher. James. Griesbeck. Morgane. Butler. Andrew. Zheng. Shiwei. 2017-04-21. Single-cell RNA-seq reveals new types of human blood dendritic cells, monocytes, and progenitors. Science. 356. 6335. eaah4573. 10.1126/science.aah4573. 0036-8075. 5775029. 28428369.
  21. Hagai. Tzachi. Chen. Xi. Miragaia. Ricardo J.. Rostom. Raghd. Gomes. Tomás. Kunowska. Natalia. Henriksson. Johan. Park. Jong-Eun. Proserpio. Valentina. November 2018. Gene expression variability across cells and species shapes innate immunity. Nature. 563. 7730. 197–202. 10.1038/s41586-018-0657-2. 0028-0836. 6347972. 30356220. 2018Natur.563..197H. 1822/56906.
  22. Web site: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative boosts Human Cell Atlas research at the Sanger Institute. www-core (webteam). www.sanger.ac.uk. 2019-07-14.
  23. Web site: An Integrated Map of the Immune System in Humans Across Tissues and Ages. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 2019-07-14.
  24. Web site: A Reference Cell Atlas of Human Liver Diversity Over a Lifespan. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 2019-07-14.
  25. Web site: Professor Muzlifah Haniffa • British Society for Investigative Dermatology. British Society for Investigative Dermatology. 2019-07-14.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Muzlifah Haniffa".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.