Prajwal Gurung, PhD, Assistant Professor in Infectious Diseases, will deliver a presentation in competition for the 2018 SLB Presidential Award at the Society for Leukocyte Biology annual meeting in Chandler, Arizona, in October. Dr. Gurung’s presentation, “TAK1 restricts spontaneous activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome,” was chosen as one of only two finalists for the award in the Junior Faculty/Post-Doc category.

In his 12-minute presentation, Dr. Gurung will describe how the enzyme TAK1 plays a central role in regulation of immune response and cell death by blocking spontaneous NOD-like receptor-P3 (NLRP3) activation. Because previous studies have shown that TAK1 suppression—either through genetic ablation or chemical inhibition—induced monocyte death in vitro and in vivo in mice, the possibility exists that it may be used as a potential cancer treatment in myeloid tumors.

As a finalist, Dr. Gurung receives a travel stipend to the meeting and will display his work during a poster session. After his presentation, he will also take questions for three minutes from the panel, which will be one of the criteria by which he is evaluated. Good luck!