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Following the recommendation of the EFIS Gender & Diversity Task Force, EFIS is pleased to award Rejane Rua from the Center for Immunology of Marseille-Luminy, Inserm, CNRS, in Aix-Marseille University with the 2026 EJI Ita Askonas Prize. 

About Rejane Rua

Rejane Rua received her training at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and completed her PhD at the Pasteur Institute under the supervision of Pr. Antoine Gessain and Pr. Olivier Schwartz. Her doctoral research focused on the pathophysiology of retroviral infections, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms underlying zoonotic transmission and viral emergence. This work provided her with a strong foundation in virology, host–pathogen interactions, and immune responses, and shaped her long-standing interest in understanding how immune mechanisms can both protect and damage tissues.

To expand her expertise into neuroimmunology, Rejane Rua joined the laboratory of Dr. Dorian McGavern at the National Institutes of Health (USA), where she investigated antiviral immune responses in the brain using advanced intravital imaging approaches. This work led to a key conceptual shift in her research. Rather than focusing exclusively on immune cells within the brain, she discovered that meningeal cells located at the surface of the brain play an active and previously unappreciated role in controlling neuroinflammation. These findings challenged the prevailing view of the meninges as passive protective layers and established them as dynamic immune compartments that regulate brain inflammation.

On research in Rejane Rua's Lab

Since establishing her group, Immunosurveillance of the Central Nervous System, at the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML), Dr. Rua has developed an independent research programme centred on meningeal macrophages as regulators of host defence and cognition. Her work encompasses three interconnected areas.

First, her research has revealed a protective role for meningeal macrophages during neuroinvasive infections. Acting as a first line of defence, these cells detect pathogens at the brain borders and orchestrate local immune responses that limit viral spread and neuroinflammation. Her team also demonstrated that inflammatory cells recruited during infection can originate from the adjacent skull bone marrow and reach the brain through microscopic bone channels, or “fast-tracks.”

Second, her work has established that meningeal macrophages have important functions beyond antiviral defence and play a critical role in perinatal brain development. By combining bioinformatics, mouse genetics, and innovative drug-delivery strategies targeting the meninges, her team is identifying the molecular pathways through which these cells influence neuronal development.

Third, her research investigates the long-term consequences of early-life inflammation on brain function. Her team has shown that inflammatory activation of meningeal macrophages during critical developmental windows can durably alter brain circuits and cognitive functions, providing new insights into how inflammation at the brain’s borders may contribute to long-term neurodevelopmental and neurocognitive dysfunction.

Together, her work positions meningeal macrophages as central hubs at the interface between the brain and the peripheral immune system, integrating developmental, inflammatory, and infectious signals. By shifting the focus from the brain parenchyma to its borders, her research has opened new conceptual and therapeutic avenues in neuroimmunology. Her long-term goal is to leverage these insights to develop targeted strategies to modulate meningeal immunity and prevent or treat neurodevelopmental, infectious, and inflammatory neurological disorders. 

Dr. Rua's prize will be formally conferred during a dedicated awards ceremony at the Eighth European Congress of Immunology (ECI 2027) where she and 2025 and 2027 prize winners will be invited to present their research.

More information on the EJI Ita Askonas Prize is available here.