Dr Justin Rustenhoven is a Rutherford Discovery Fellow based in the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland where he investigates how neuroimmune cross-talk in the border regions of the central nervous system maintains homeostatic brain function and how perturbations here can contribute to neurological disease. He completed his PhD at the University of Auckland before performing postdoctoral research at the University of Virginia and Washington University in St Louis in the United States of America. His research has employed high-dimensional spectral and mass cytometry, sorting of rare populations, and scRNA-sequencing to profile the immune and vascular components of the central nervous system border regions, uncovering unique sites for central nervous system antigen presentation and drainage, immune trafficking into the brain, and neuro-immune cross-talk. His work has been published in top journals including Cell, Nature, and Science, and his contributions to the role of the immune system in brain function were recognized by the Science and Eppendorf Prize for Neurobiology in 2021.

Dr Anna Boss is a Research Fellow based in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Auckland, where she is investigating how the placental blood vessels develop over gestation and why vascular development and function is compromised in fetal growth restriction, resulting in poor nutrient and oxygen delivery to the baby. Her research has employed multi-colour panels for particularly autofluorescent tissues (placenta/stromal vascular fraction) and used fluorescence activated cell sorting to investigate in vitro properties of stromal and endothelial cell populations. She has uncovered novel vascular/stromal heterogeneity and demonstrated the value of using flow cytometry to characterise stromal/vascular cells.

Fairooj Rashid started her journey in basic science research by completing a masters degree in Biomedical and Molecular Science Research at King's College London, UK. Currently she is pursuing her Ph.D in Medicine at the University of Sydney under Associate Professor James Chong's supervision. Her research interest comprises of application of single-cell and spatially resolved omics analysis to decipher the disease pathology of end stage heart failure.