PhD student Kim D'Costa receives France travel grant

Kimberley D'Costa, a third year PhD student from the Gastrointestinal Infection and Inflammation laboratory in Hudson's Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases, has received a travel grant as part of the Science Mobilisation Program initiated by the Embassy of France in Australia.

The grant will enable her to spend up to four weeks in Prof. Ivo Boneca's laboratory at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where she will have access to techniques and infection models vital for the progress of her research aims. 

Kim's PhD project (Modifications of Helicobacter pylori peptidoglycan and their impact on Nod1-mediated host cell responses) is part of an existing scientific collaboration between her PhD supervisor, A/Prof. Richard Ferrero, and Dr. Boneca. 

Preliminary data from their research suggests that the human pathogen, H. pylori, may modulate its peptidoglycan composition to actively engage the NOD1 signaling pathway, thereby initiating responses that favour bacterial persistence in vivo.