Speaker

Claudia Mauri is Professor of Immunology and Vice-Dean International of the Faculty Medical Science at University College in London. She received her Doctor of Biology with magna cum laude in 1989 and PhD equivalent in 1996 from the University La Sapienza in Rome, Italy. She performed postdoctoral work in London at The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Imperial College, UK. She moved to University College London in 2002 where she established her group. Her main research interest lies in understanding the mechanisms driving autoimmunity with a particular interest in unravelling the function of regulatory B cells in experimental models of rheumatic disease and in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Her group was amongst the first to identify a novel subset of B cells with a powerful immuno-suppressive capacity. Her work was seminal in the identification of CD40 activation for the regulatory B cell activation and how the adoptive transfer of this B cell subset can efficiently prevent disease development and ameliorates established arthritis. More recently, she has shown that inflammation, driven by gut-microflora composition, is a primary requisite for Breg development. Her group has translated the results obtained from experimental models to humans, and showed that in healthy Bregs directly suppress pro-inflammatory cytokine production by T cells, whilst supporting the differentiation of regulatory T-cells. However, in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus, Bregs have lost their capacity to suppress pro-inflammatory T cell responses.

« Go Back