Speaker: Prof. Paola Romagnoli, Centre of Pathophysiology of Toulouse Purpan/France
Title: "Life cycle of regulatory T lymphocytes" (SFB 900)
When: 17:00 Uhr s.t.
Where: MHH, Lecture hall G
Host: Prof. Dr. Tim Sparwasser
Paola Romagnoli is an immunologist at the Centre of Pathophysiology of Toulouse Purpan in France. Her interest in immunology began during graduate-training at the neurological hospital ‘Carlo Besta’ in Milano, Italy. Her postdoctoral research focused on the interaction between T lymphocytes and antigen presenting cells. Of this interaction she studied several aspects: antigen-recognition by T lymphocytes (1988-1991, Hoffmann La-Roche, Basel, Switzerland), antigen-presentation by MHC-molecules (1991-1994, NIH, Bethesda, USA), and TCR signal-transduction (1995-1998, BIL, Lausanne, Switzerland). In 1999 she was recruited as a scientist by the CNRS and she founded with Joost van Meerwijk a team on the biology of regulatory T (Treg) cells; from their development in the thymus to their therapeutic use in transplantation. She demonstrated that the repertoire of Treg lymphocytes is enriched in self-reactive cells and contributed in deciphering the selection processes that shape it. Her group uncovered that peripheral Treg cells reenter the thymus and inhibit the development of their precursors. Her research aims at understanding the connection between peripheral immune responses and thymopoiesis.