ANZFAID are honoured and grateful to be a part of the upcoming 1000km for CAPS ride/walk, awareness and fundraising initiative by Dr. Sabrina Sofia Burgener.
Show your support for Sabrina and the autoinflammatory community by donating whatever you can. Each donation made during Sabrina's ride/walk will help us to continue to raise awareness of CAPS and other autoinflammatory diseases and support patients throughout Australia and New Zealand.
All donations gratefully accepted.
We are in it together!
During late May/early June, Sabrina will cover 1000km by cycling through France and walking the Camino from Porto to Santiago to raise awareness for CAPS and autoinflammatory diseases. Inspired by the resilience, strength and compassion of people living with CAPS, Sabrina likes to give back to this strong community, to increase the support for patients within Australia, their families and their medical doctors.
These conditions affect thousands of people who too often go years without answers, without a diagnosis, and without hope and Sabrina hopes her part in raising awareness will help raise the profile of these diseases.
About Sabrina
Dr. Sabrina Sofia Burgener grew up in Switzerland, and after obtaining her professional training as a Veterinary Technician, she completed her PhD in Immunology at the University of Bern, Switzerland in 2017. Sabrina's PhD work on neutrophils, an innate immune cell, and how these cells protect themselves against the suicidal properties of their own antimicrobial defence system received several international awards.
In 2019, Sabrina moved to Brisbane, Australia, and joined the Inflammasome Group of Prof. Kate Schroder as a Senior Research Fellow.
Since then, Sabrina has been promoted to Team Leader and Deputy Lab Head of the Inflammasome Group (Prof. Kate Schroder) at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at the University of Queensland. Her research is funded by the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Sabrina's Research
In the Inflammasome lab, Sabrina's research program focuses on bridging discovery science with clinical application with a viewpoint on studying inflammasome signalling in disease with a focus on:
- how the innate immune system, especially inflammasome, drives disease, to better understand the molecular mechanism leading to disease progression in diseases such as Cryopyrin-Associated Periodic Syndromes (CAPS) and chronic metabolic diseases
- defining novel diagnostic tools to measure inflammasome signalling in these diseases, to provide patients and clinicians with better tools to measure inflammasome signalling in the clinic
- identifying the potential therapeutic trade-offs of upcoming anti-inflammatory therapies, especially novel anti-inflammasome inhibitors, and how these emerging drugs may heighten the susceptibility to commensal infections such as Candida albicans infection.
All donations gratefully accepted.
What is CAPS?
Cryopyrin-Associated Periodic Syndromes (CAPS) are a group of rare inherited inflammatory conditions caused by variants in the NLRP3 gene. There are three types mild, moderate and severe.
These have previously been named:
- FCAS – Familial Cold Autoinflammatory Syndrome (mild)
- MWS – Muckle-Wells Syndrome (moderate)
- NOMID/CINCA – Neonatal-Onset Multisystem Inflammatory Disease / Chronic Infantile Neurological Cutaneous and Articular Syndrome (severe)
These syndromes affect the immune system and cause repeated inflammation throughout the body.
They exist on a spectrum.
MILD - FCAS
MODERATE - MSW
SEVERE - NOMID/CINCA