Events and Open Days

This informal meeting will once again bring together the influenza virus research community from across industry, government and academia to present and discuss ongoing research.

We are delighted to host Professor Tivani Mashamba-Thompson and invite you to join us for a seminar on Thursday 8^th January 2026 1-2pm in person Room IBR0.01, Warwick Medical School or virtually on Teams Join the meeting nowLink opens in a new window .
 
Professor Tivani Mashamba-Thompson is an internationally trained Molecular Biology Medical Scientist registered by the HPCSA and an NRF C1 rated researcher holding the position of Professor of Diagnostics Research at University of Pretoria. She is also a Founding Director for the Centre for Development and Implementation of Point-of-Care Diagnostics at University of Pretoria and is a founding member of the evidence synthesis and translation research group at University of Pretoria.
 
Professor Mashamba-Thompson contributes to the governance of South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) as a non-executive board member, serving as a Chairperson of the NHLS Research and Innovation Committee and serves as a Deputy Chairperson of the National Health Research Committee of South Africa. She further extends her expertise as a scientific advisor to Abbott International.
 
We look forward to seeing you at her seminar.

Abstract: Body cavities are an evolutionarily conserved architectural feature of metazoans: fluid-filled spaces in which organs are suspended, allowed to move, and mechanically interact to fulfill their function. These same spaces harbor a primordial, highly specialized immune ecosystem. Among its most striking components are cavity-resident macrophages, which exist in suspension within the serous fluid. Positioned for constant surveillance, they sense deviations from homeostasis within minutes and initiate broad, pleiotropic responses that shape the ensuing inflammatory trajectory.

Using intravital microscopy, we have uncovered new principles of the biology of these cavity macrophages—how they patrol, how they respond to micro-injury, and how rapidly they can be depleted. Their depletion, classically observed as “macrophage disappearance” from the peritoneal fluid, marks a critical threshold: once resident macrophages are spent, secondary waves of immune cells such as neutrophils and monocytes are recruited. These monocytes, in turn, differentiate into non-resident macrophages with distinct phenotypes and functions.

I will discuss how these macrophage populations and mesenchymal cells cooperate during inflammation and resolution, and how their division of labor ultimately influences tissue repair within serous environments.