Prof Louise Boyle

Professor of Molecular Immunology & Wellcome Senior Research Fellow, Department of Pathology

Louise Boyle became the Professor of Molecular Immunology in the Department of Pathology in October 2021. She obtained a BSc Hons in Biological Sciences from the University of Edinburgh in 1998, followed by a PhD in Immunology from the University of Cambridge, where she studied T cell responses in patients with arthritis in Professor Hill Gaston’s laboratory.   In 2002, she joined Professor John Trowsdale’s group as a Postdoctoral Research Associate to continue her work on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules.   There, she discovered TAPBPR was a novel component of the MHC class I antigen processing and presentation pathway. In 2009, Louise was awarded a Wellcome Career Development Fellowship, followed by a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship to explore the molecular pathways controlling antigen presentation to the immune system.  She was appointed as a University Lecturer in 2017 and promoted to a University Reader in 2019. In 2020, her Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship was successfully renewed. Her laboratory is currently focused on understanding the role of TAPBPR in peptide selection for immune recognition and how this contributes to human health and disease.  Louise’s research programme offers important translational opportunities in infection control, autoimmune disease, cancer immunotherapy and vaccine development.