Novartis Graduate Award for Christina Malainou

Congratulations to Christina Malainou, PhD! 🎉
She has received one of the €8,000 Novartis Graduate Awards from the Foundation for Therapeutic Research. This award recognizes outstanding early-career scientists who have already distinguished themselves through excellent and therapeutically relevant research.

Building on an important discovery

In her 2025 publication in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Dr. Malainou identified TNFSF14–LTβR signaling as a key mechanism driving the death of tissue-resident alveolar macrophages during acute influenza virus infection (DOI: 10.1172/JCI185390), leading to increased susceptibility to secondary bacterial pneumonia.

Importantly, this signaling axis has also been implicated in chronic lung diseases, where persistent inflammation and abnormal tissue repair can contribute to long-term lung damage. This raises a new question: How does TNFSF14–LTβR signaling influence the transition from the initial immune response, involving alveolar macrophages, to the activity of epithelial and mesenchymal cells that drive lung repair and remodeling?

A new approach to understanding lung regeneration

With the support of the Novartis Graduate Award, Dr. Malainou will use an innovative 3D ex vivo lung organoid system to pursue two complementary aims:

Aim 1 – Characterizing the cellular landscape: Identifying distinct epithelial stem cell and mesenchymal cell subpopulations and investigating how these cells contribute to antiviral defense, tissue repair, and regeneration.

Aim 2 – Investigating the signaling switch: Defining how TNFSF14–LTβR signaling influences interactions between lung epithelial and mesenchymal cells and determines whether the lung undergoes effective repair or pathological remodeling after influenza virus infection.

By extending her previous findings beyond macrophage loss to the broader cellular networks that govern lung regeneration, this project aims to uncover mechanisms linking acute viral injury to chronic lung damage.

We warmly congratulate Christina on this special recognition and wish her every success in her future career!