Clinical Immunology is the proud sponsor of the FOCIS Clinical Immunology Trainee Award.

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the FOCIS Clinical Immunology Trainee Award is Carina Dehner, Yale University.

Carina graduated with an MD in medicine from the Technical University of Munich in Germany in 2016. Her doctoral thesis was completed, in the laboratory of Prof. Waschke, and focused on elucidating signaling pathways in the autoimmune skin disease Pemphigus vulgaris. In 2014, she received funding from Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds in order to study T cell cross-reactivity to commensal bacteria in Dr. Martin Kriegel’s lab at Yale University, which she was able to present amongst others in the Masterclass of Nobel Laureate Dr. Peter C. Doherty at the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting.

Upon finishing her fellowship in Dr. Kriegel’s laboratory, Carina continued her work on T cell cross-reactivity as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Kriegel. Her current project investigates the role the skin and gut microbiome have in the development and persistence of the antiphospholipid syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus. In the future, she sees herself pursuing a physician-scientist career in the United States investigating the origins of autoimmunity.