Katja Kleinsteuber, PhD, a Postdoctoral Fellow with in the Walker Lab has been awarded the Marie Curie International outgoing fellowship awarded by the European Commission.

The European Commission plays a key role in providing support for the next generation of science, technology, researchers and innovations through the whole of the European Union and associated countries.  The Marie Sklodowska-Curie action‘s (MSCA) objective is to support the career development and training of researchers – with a focus on innovation skills – in all scientific disciplines worldwide.

These fellowships, which are awarded once a year to European researchers from all scientific disciplines, aim to support scientists in their career development in science, as well as encouraging the transfer of knowledge between countries.

Originally from Germany, Dr. Kleinsteuber was eligible for this grant which will support her salary and career development for a total of three years, starting January 2015.  Dr. Kleinsteuber plans to spend the first two years at Ragon Institute in Dr. Bruce Walker’s lab and the third year (2017) in the lab of Marcus Altfeld at Heinrich-Pette Institute in Hamburg, Germany.

The title of Dr. Kleinsteuber’s research project is: “Assessment of functional immune responses of HIV infected individuals without protective HLA-B alleles”.