Position(s)

Experimental Medicine Initiative Clinical Research Training Fellow (PhD)

Qualifications

M.D. (Melit) | MRCEM

Biography

Arlette graduated from the University of Malta in 2009 with a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, and thereafter undertook a MSc in Critical Care at Queen Mary University of London. She received Foundation and Core training in acute, emergency and critical care in Malta and Dundee, prior to obtaining an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Intensive Care Medicine in London. Arlette has undertaken her academic training in Cambridge, where she commenced research into the functional phenotype of deprimed neutrophils under the supervision of Dr Charlotte Summers; Arlette then progressed to a PhD within the Experimental Medicine Initiative at the University of Cambridge.

Current projects

• Elucidating the functional phenotype of deprimed neutrophils
• Investigating differential effects of tumour necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) 1 and 2 in modulating neutrophil activation and neutrophil-pulmonary endothelial interactions.

Keywords: neutrophils, ARDS, TNFR1, priming, depriming

Publications: see Critical Care Group Publications

Wood AJ, Vassallo AM, Ruchaud-Sparagano MH, Scott J, Zinnato C, Gonzalez-Tejedo C, Kishore K, D’Santos CS, Simpson AJ, Menon DK, Summers C, Chilvers ER, Okkenhaug K, Conway Morris A. C5a imparts phagosomal maturation in the neutrophil through phosphoproteomic remodelling. JCI Insight 2020, in press.

Ryan J, Bayliffe AI, McAuley DF, Yeung J, Thickett DR, Howells PA, O’Donnell C, Vassallo AM, Wright TJ, McKie E, Hardes K, Summers C, Shields MO, Powley W, Wilson R, Lazaar AL, Fowler A, Perkins GD. A randomised, placebo-controlled pilot study of a nebuliser anti tumour necrosis factor receptor-1 domain antibody in patients at risk of postoperative lung injury. Eur J Anaesthesia 2020, in press.

Vassallo A, Wood AJ, Subburaylu J, Summers C, Chilvers ER. The counter-intuitive role of the neutrophil in the acute respiratory distress syndrome. Br Med Bull 2019; 131:43-55.

Bashant KR, Vassallo A, Herold C, Berner R, Menschner L, Subburayalu J, Kaplan M, Summers C, Guck J, Chilvers ER, Toepfner N. Real-time deformability cytometry reveals sequential contraction and expansion during neutrophil priming. J Leukoc Biol. 2019; 105:1143-1153.

Wood AJT, Vassallo A, Summers C, Chilvers ER, Conway Morris A. C5a anaphylatoxin and its role in critical illness-induced organ dysfunction. Eur J Clin Invest. 2018; 48:e13028.

Book chapters

Bastoni D, Vassallo A, Cecconi M, Rhodes A.  Remote Ischaemic Conditioning. What we know so far. In: London Critical Care 2015

Snapshot of Arlette’s work