Hisayo Matsuyama

It was a great honour and privilege to be chosen for the APSR/ISRD Travel Award at the ATS International Conference 2019 and would like to express my appreciation to Drs Kwun Fong, Yoshiki Hasegawa, and Chunxue Bai. This was my first time to attend the APSR/ISRD Joint-Session and to present my research in English in front of so many people. Both were great experiences.

In the session, I presented how mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells act in sarcoidosis patients. MAIT cells are not well-known innate T cells which produce a large amount of cytokines relating to granuloma formation. We identified that MAIT cells are activated and reduced in peripheral blood of the patients compared to that of healthy controls, and that MAIT cells recruited especially in inflamed pulmonary lesion. Thus, we considered MAIT cells might play an important role in the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis and it could be a potential target of sarcoidosis treatment.

I appreciated all the questions and comments, which may provide wonderful inspiration and it became a great opportunity for learning and exchanging ideas leading to our further research. I received valuable feedback after my presentation about our translational study.

The plan for further research will be clearer. We obtained many important new findings of the basic and clinical science of respiratory medicine in the session. Through presenting our research, I desire that our work influencences other researchers on sarcoidosis, to declare the pathogenesis or mechanism of unknown etiology.

I learned much about the latest topics of clinical, or translational study at the congress. I was really excited and amazed by what other researches were doing and what they were going to do. This emotional experience, as well as being chosen for the award, motivated me to do further research.

During the congress in Dallas, I couldn't live without scooters and ubers. They were very useful to look around the city. Dallas is famous for President John F Kennedy's assassination, so the city has many places to remember him. I learned how the president lived and how much he was loved by his people. I don't have adequate knowledge about American history, but the incident made me think more about "life" and "happiness".

I would like to express my sincerest gratitude as well to my supervisors, Dr Takuma Isshiki, Dr Sachiko Miyake and Dr Tetsuo Yamaguchi, for all the tremendous support during my PhD program and letting me have this opportunity to present our advancement in sarcoidosis.