Each year, the Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine awards Lister Prize Fellowships to up-and-coming scientists leading high-quality biomedical research. Consistent with the Lister Institute’s mission of ‘nurturing the future leaders in biomedical research’, the prize money is designed to have a significant positive impact on the research careers of recipients.
Dr Fränze Progatzky, who joined the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology (KIR) in 2023 from the Francis Crick Institute, was one of eight researchers to receive a Lister Prize Fellowship in 2025. Fränze studies how the peripheral nervous system, through glial cells, regulates immunity and tissue repair in ‘barrier organs’ such as the lungs, gut, and skin – places where the immune system is exposed to the environment. Glial cells were once thought to be bystanders to immunity, their only role to provide structural support to neurons. Recently, however, they are emerging as key regulators of barrier tissue homeostasis. Understanding the contributions of glial cells to health and disease will be critical to developing new treatments for inflammatory disorders like inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, and atopic dermatitis.
About the prize, Fränze said ‘I am delighted and honoured to receive the Lister Prize. This award will significantly accelerate the trajectory of my newly established lab by enabling us to forge an exciting new research avenue on the tissue-regulatory roles of peripheral glial cells. The flexible nature of the Prize allows me to build data science capacity within my lab, strengthen the human relevance of our research, and support training the next generation of scientists.’
Professor Tonia Vincent, Professor of Musculoskeletal Biology & Honorary Rheumatologist, leads the Tissue Biology platform which underpins Fränze’s work at the KIR. She said 'we are thrilled to hear that Fränze has been awarded the Lister prize; it is richly deserved and provides an exciting opportunity to develop and integrate her program of work into the KIR, aligning with new strategic priorities.'