Jeremiah Bernier-Latmani, currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the supervision of Tanya Petrova, received a travel award from LE&RN to attend the 2016 Gordon Research Conference in Lymphatics held in Ventura, CA. We asked Jeremiah to share his thoughts on that experience with us and to tell us a bit about his research and future plans.

1. What did you get out of the Conference? Why did you feel it was important to attend?

The GRC in Lymphatics was a great conference to attend because all the leaders in the field are there. I was able to exchange ideas with a number of people working in all aspects of lymphatic vessel biology through the oral and poster presentations as well as discussions.  I felt it was important to attend to continue to be integrated into this dynamic research community and keep abreast of the newest findings.

2. What are your areas of interest in research?

During my postdoc, I have been studying organ-specific lymphatic vessels, focusing on the small intestine. These specialized lymphatic vessels are important because they transport much of the dietary fat and perform gut immunosurveillance by transporting immune cells from the intestine to the gut-draining lymph nodes. Combining 3D imaging approaches with inducible genetic mutant mouse models, I study how intestinal lymphatic vessel patterning influences gut function.

3. What are your hopes and plans for your career and your research?

I hope to become a junior group leader in the near future and continue to study adult organ-specific lymphatic vessels in the gut, but also expand to other organs. I believe developing novel mouse models and imaging techniques to study organ-specific vasculature will expand our knowledge of how lymphatic vessels “fit-in” to differing tissue microenvironments and allow novel hypothesis-driven therapies for a number of human diseases.

4. Why do you believe that, in general, lymphatic research is important? What might the field accomplish within the next few years?

Lymphatic research is important, as I believe lymphatics, in general, are sometimes forgotten for their importance in human health. I believe, as is happening currently, that lymphatic vessels will be appreciated as major players in human health and disease and novel therapies will be developed to treat disease through lymphatic vessels.