Dr Kate Sutton
Career Track Fellow
- Division of Immunology
Contact details
Availability
Willingness to take Ph.D. students: Yes
Background
I obtained a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry at the University of Galway in Ireland followed by a MSc in Drug Design and Biomedical Sciences at Edinburgh Napier University. My PhD research was based at the Roslin Institute focused on avian cytokines as vaccine adjuvants in collaboration with Ceva Santé Animal Health. From 2014-2016, I worked at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge and Ludwig Maximillian University/Technical University Munich, Germany. Over this period my research was focused on chicken B cell development and transgenic technologies. In 2016, I returned to the Roslin Institute to work on chicken innate immune cells and their role in host-protection. In 2023, I was promoted to Career Track Fellow forming the Avian Immunotransgenics Group.
Qualifications
Doctor of Science PhD Avian Immunology, The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Master in Science Drug Design and Biomedical Science , Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland.
Bachelor of Science (Hons) Biochemistry, University of Galway, Rep. of Ireland
Responsibilities & affiliations
Comparative Veterinary Immunology Group (CVIG)
Role: Treasurer
Representative for Avian Immunologists and The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh
Editorial
Section Editor of Avian Immunology for British Poultry Science
Section Editor of Avian Immunology for Veterinary Research
Membership
The Royal Society of Biology
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
Postgraduate MSc Students (20-week projects)
2024-2025
Aishwarya Subbaraman
2022-2023
Miriam Garner
Zirong Zeng
Undergraduate Students Projects
Sarah Baker
Medhavini Saxena (with Prof. Ian Dunn)
Current PhD students supervised
Lead-supervisor
Jefferon Ling
Past PhD students supervised
Jianxuan Sun
Emma Armstrong
Safieh Zeinali Lathori
Research summary
Dr Sutton is a Career Track Fellow in Avian Immunology at the The Roslin Institute. Her research focuses on the function of innate immune cells, including macrophages and dendritic cells. Her group initially characterises whether distinct subsets of these cells exist in chickens and investigates their roles in natural and vaccine-mediated immunity.
She develops novel techniques and transgenic chicken lines to study these cells, alongside T cells, both in vivo and in vitro. This work aims to identify signatures of immune protection and determine how these can be harnessed to enhance or develop more effective poultry vaccines. Techniques used in the laboratory include multi-colour flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, histology, and mRNA transcript analysis using the 96×96 Fluidigm/Biomark system, RNA-seq, sc- or sn-RNA-seq
In parallel, her group are internationally recognised leaders in avian organoid systems. They have experience in intestinal organoids (3D and 2D) and lung organoids (3D) from chicken, turkey, quail, guinea fowl and duck, as well as intestinal organoids (3D-2D) from cattle. Using transgenic lines housed at the National Avian Research Facility, her team can generate organoids that enable selective depletion of cDC1 cells, tracking and visualisation of pathogens, and imaging of macrophages and dendritic cells. These models have been used to study virus virluenece, effects of microbiome-derived products and tropism of pathogens and their effects on innate immune responses.
The group applies cutting-edge methodologies including 3D image rendering, high-definition confocal microscopy, multi-colour flow cytometry, high-throughput food, compound and drug screening, intestinal barrier integrity assays, and metabolic analysis of 3D organoids.
Current project grants
Lead:
2024 Roslin Foundation Grant "GENERATION OF TRACE CHICKEN"
2024 Houghton Trust Undergraduate Student Vacation Grant
2024 The Roslin Institute ISP24 pump-priming Award "Understanding the effects of chicken MHC class I-restricted immune responses to Marek’s disease virus"
2023 The Roslin Institute ISP23 pump-priming Award "Unveiling the role of chicken dendritic cells in response to vaccination against infectious bronchitis virus"
Co-PI:
2023 Carnegie Research Incentive Grant "Investigating chicken line- and Salmonella serovar-specific interactions in chicken enteroids."
Colloboration with Dr. Prerna Vohra at the School of Biological Science, University of Edinburgh
2023 BBSRC FLU-MAP2, Understanding animal health threats from emerging H5 high pathogenicity avian influenza viruses
Past project grants
2021 Global Impact Accelerator "Capacity building in scientific techniques: identification of selection targets in chickens raised in African village conditions"
2019 BBSRC, UKRI Innovation Fellowships: Flexible Talent Mobility Award. "M cell vaccine targeting in chickens" (Industrial Partner)
2019 Innovate UK SMART Grant Improved Oral Vaccine for Coccidiosis in Chicks (Industrial Partner)
2018 BBSRC ISP Pump-Priming Grant "Avian M cells: identification of universal markers and production of antibodies"
2018 International Veterinary Vaccinology Network Prime-Boosting Award. "Towards edible vaccines in chickens (Industrial Partner-Proxima Ltd)"
2017 BBSRC, UKRI Innovation Fellowships: Flexible Talent Mobility Award. "Edible vaccines in chickens-enhance collaborative relationship with industrial Partner.
Invited speaker
2021 International Veterinary Vaccinology Network “Vaccines for Poultry” Co-hosted by the GCRF One Health Poultry Hub
2021 “Tropical poultry production - research towards sustainable systems” hosted by the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH)
2021 European Veterinary Immunology Group "Characterization of conventional dendritic cells and macrophages in the spleen using the CSF1R-reporter transgenic chickens"
2021 Annual Edinburgh Infectious Disease Symposium, "Differential Responses of Epithelial and Immune Cells During Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium Infection of 3D and 2D Enteroids"
2022 Avian Immunology Flow Cytometry Symposium "Chicken Macrophages & Dendritic Cells"
2022 Avian Immunology Research Group (AIRG), Delaware USA
- CSF2 & IL4- & CSF2-dependent Chicken Bone Marrow Cultures Represent Cells of the Macrophages Lineage
- Differential Innate Immune Responses of Chicken 3D and 2D Enteroids to Salmonella Typhimurium Infection
- The Conservation of Mammalian M cell Gene Signatures in Chicken CSF1R-transgene Antigen-Sampling M cells
Organiser
Comparative and Veterinary Immunology Group (affiliated with the British Society for Immunology)
2022 Avian Immunology Flow Cytometry Symposium (https://www.immunology.org/avian-immunology-flow-cytometry-symposium)
2022 Single-cell sequencing technologies and the immune response in different species (https://www.immunology.org/meeting-report-single-cell-sequencing-technologies-and-immune-response-different-species)