Clare Muir
Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Anatomic Pathology
- Institute for Regeneration and Repair
- Easter Bush Pathology, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies
Contact details
- Tel: 0131 6508784
- Email: cmuir4@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Easter Bush Pathology
Veterinary Teaching Building - City
- Easter Bush Campus
- Post code
- EH25 9RG
- Street
-
Institute for Regeneration and Repair
Edinburgh BioQuarter
5 Little France Drive - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH16 4UU
Background
Clare graduated from the University of Edinburgh School of Veterinary Medicine in 2011. Clare subsequently volunteered overseas before working in small animal critical care. In 2013, Clare started a 4-year specialty training programme in veterinary anatomic pathology at the Royal Veterinary College, London, and Bridge Pathology, Bristol, and qualified as a specialist in veterinary anatomic pathology in 2017. In 2018, Clare joined the Wellcome 4Ward North PhD Academy to study how neutrophils use phosphatidylinositol (PI) lipids to kill bacteria. To achieve this, Clare developed an in vivo, live infection model using the optically transparent and genetically tractable zebrafish. This model overcomes many challenges of in vitro neutrophil models and enables Clare to visualise dynamic changes in PI lipids on the phagosome membrane in real-time. PI lipids coordinate many aspects of phagosome maturation and this model has therefore enabled Clare to investigate key host signalling pathways that could be manipulated to enhance bacterial killing in hard-to-treat infections. During her PhD, Clare was awarded 1st prize for her talk at both the Gordon Research Phagocyte Seminar 2023 and the University of Sheffield Medical Conference 2023. Clare has also worked as the Education Co-ordinator for the British Society of Veterinary Pathologists. In 2023, Clare moved to the University of Edinburgh to work as a Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Anatomic Pathology and is now a co-PI on a Wellcome Discovery Award, led by Professor Jason King at the University of Sheffield. This award has enabled Clare to start her own laboratory in the Institute for Regeneration and Repair where Clare uses both zebrafish and human cells to investigate how phagocytes control phagosome fate and pathogen killing.
Qualifications
2009 BSc Physiology, University of Leeds
2011 BVM&S, University of Edinburgh
2017 Specialist in Veterinary Anatomic Pathology (Dip. ACVP)
2024 PhD, University of Sheffield
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Research summary
Understanding how phosphatidylinositol lipids control phagosome maturation in neutrophils and macrophages.
Identifying host signalling pathways that could be used to improve pathogen killing in hard-to-treat infections.