Manchester Immunology Group Seminar Series. Dr Carla Nowosad, New York University. Location: Smith Lecture Theatre, Michael Smith Building
| Dates: | 17 April 2025 |
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| Times: | 12:00 - 13:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Biological Sciences |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Dr Carla Nowosad |
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Talk title: Lymph node lymphangiogenesis regulates the germinal center response.
In the lymph node (LN), the B cell follicle sits adjacent to the subcapsular sinus to facilitate optimal antigen access and cellular transport. During infections, LNs significantly remodel, and lymphatic vessels proliferate to specifically envelope activating B cell follicles. Despite the physical adjacency of these two cell populations, we have a very limited understanding for the extent of their communication and whether there are functional implications for disrupting the dialogue between B cells and lymphatic vessels. We demonstrate that lymphatic-specific deletion of the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, Vegfr2, is sufficient to perturb GC dynamics in the draining LN post-infection. Deletion of Vegfr2 restricts LN lymphangiogenesis leading to an expansion of the GC response. Surprisingly, however, this seemingly enlarged GC response is associated with less clonal selection, reduced circulating viral-specific antibodies, and less protection at memory time points, indicating that VEGFR2-dependent lymphatic remodeling may play an important role in tuning GC dynamics to facilitate optimal protective antibody responses.
Biography:
Carla Nowosad is an Assistant Professor at New York University and runs the Mucosal B cell Laboratory. She carried out her PhD in the lab of Pavel Tolar at the Francis Crick Institute, where she studied how Germinal Center B cells form immune synapses. Then, carried out postdoctoral research in the Labs of Gabriel Victora and Daniel Mucida at The Rockefeller University. Here, she characterized clonal selection of B cells in chronic germinal center responses that form in the healthy intestine and produce microbiota-regulating IgA. In her own lab, Carla is interested in how B cells adapt to their environment. She studies the signaling, development and evolution of germinal center B cell responses in the intestine and beyond.
Speaker
Dr Carla Nowosad
Organisation: New York University
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Smith Lecture Theatre
Michael Smith Building
Manchester
