Host: Mahima Swamy

Venue: MSI Small Lecture Theatre, SLS

Abstract:

The Germinal Centre (GC) reaction demands a unique bioenergetic supply. Despite B-cell mitochondria remodelling upon antigen encounter is crucial for sustaining these demands, mitochondria function in B cells is still poorly understood. To address this point, we have generated mice whose B cells lack Tfam, a transcription factor for mitochondria biogenesis.

Tfam KO mice displayed a blockage of GC reaction, establishing an immune response featured by the differentiation of activated B cells towards memory B cells and aged related B cells, hallmarks of an aged immune response. Unexpectedly, GC blockage in Tfam KO mice did not cause defects in the bioenergetic supply. In contrast, the Tfam KO GC phenotype was provoked by a defect in remodelling the lysosome compartment of B cells, unmasking a new mitochondria's function critical for antigen presentation during the GC reaction.

Our findings unveil a new mitochondria´s function during the GC reaction, whose abrogation seeds the basis of an aged immune response.

Bio:

After completing her B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Valencia, Nuria embarked on her research career. She gained valuable experience in Dr. Alarcon's laboratory (2007-2011) and Dr. Batista's laboratory (2011-2017) as a PhD student and postdoctoral fellow, respectively. Throughout these years, Nuria received prestigious grants including a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education (2006-2010), an EMBO long-term fellowship (2012-2014), and a Marie Curie Intra-European fellowship (2014-2016). Her research focused on understanding the immune system, resulting in significant contributions to immunology. Nuria elucidated the cooperative relationship between TCR complexes, revealing the transmission of conformational changes during TCR signaling (Martinez-Martin et al. 2009). Additionally, her work on the GTPase TC21 (RRas2) in lymphocytes provided insights into its role as a direct effector of TCR and BCR, including its involvement in TCR internalization and trogocytosis in T cells (Delgado et al. 2009; Martínez-Martín et al. 2011). Nuria also developed a novel method to quantify non-canonical autophagy in B cells, shedding light on its role in the immune response (Martinez-Martin et al. 2017).

In 2018, she was appointed as a Ramón y Cajal Investigator and began her role as a principal investigator at the CBMSO-CSIC, leading a group focused on describing the role of mitochondrial metabolism in B cells and the adaptive immune response. Her recent work has uncovered the roles of mitochondria in activated B cells during the adaptive immune response, including their function as a power supplier (Mendoza et al, 2018) and as controllers of lysosome function (Iborra-Pernichi et al, 2024). Utilizing state-of-the-art techniques, Nuria has extensively characterized the metabolic plasticity of B cells during the adaptive immune response, profiling these cells metabolically and revealing the role of mitochondria in the aging of the humoral immune response. Recently, Nuria has been awarded with a grant from La Caixa Health Research program (HR22) to unveil the role of the metabolic communication during infection.

Some of her publications are:

1. Martinez-Martin, N. et al. A switch from canonical to noncanonical autophagy shapes B cell responses. Science 355, 641–647 (2017).

2. Martínez‐Riaño, A. et al. Antigen phagocytosis by B cells is required for a potent humoral response. Embo Rep 19, (2018).

3. Tsui, C. et al. Protein Kinase C-β Dictates B Cell Fate by Regulating Mitochondrial Remodeling, Metabolic Reprogramming, and Heme Biosynthesis. Immunity 48, 1144-1159.e5 (2018).

4. Mendoza, P. et al. R-Ras2 is required for germinal center formation to aid B cells during energetically demanding processes. Sci Signal 11, eaal1506 (2018).

5. Marta Iborra-Pernichi, et al Defective mitochondria remodelling in B cells leads to an aged immune response. Accepted in Nature Communications. (2024).

12 Hour Acting Up
1 February 2025
11am–11pm

Cooper Gallery in Dundee invite you to join our 12 Hour Acting Up and revitalise She Town’s much lauded spirit of heckling – the art and craft of speaking loud and proud to those who claim to be ‘in charge’. 

Reverberating with the attitude, poise and pose of intersectional feminist and queer agitation and dissent, The Ignorant Art School’s Sit-in #4 Outside the Circle culminates with an international coalition of artists, activists, culture workers, educators, students, musicians, performers, writers, and feminist and LGBTQ+ communities in Scotland and from around the world.

Celebrating the socially embedded acts of self-knowledge emblematic of feminist and queer activism, 12 Hour Acting Up broadcasts the difficult yet profound truth of lived experience which feminist and queer activism courageously speaks to power. 

Defiantly empowering the experiences of the oppressed and marginalised, 12 Hour Acting Up will channel feminist and queer ‘practices of knowing’ through a constellation of affective memories and critical reflections expressed as collective readings, sewing, singing, dancing, storytelling, talks, performances, street theatre, round table discussions, screenings and workshops. 

Unfolding the possibilities of assembly, collective actions and spirited protest 12 Hour Acting Up will reveal, in all their radical complexity and zeal, the global legacies and future promise of feminist and queer acts of emancipatory pedagogy. But much more than this 12 Hour Acting Up desires to share Audre Lorde’s assertion of ‘the erotic’ as ‘the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.’

Contributors

Sam Ainsley (artist and educator)
Saoirse Amira Anis (artist)
Sutapa Biswas (artist)
Sheba Chhachhi (artist and photographer)
Phyllis Christopher (photographer)
Akwugo Emejulu (political sociologist)
Erica Eyres (artist and educator)
Erin Farley (storyteller and historian)
Karen Di Franco (curator)
Althea Greenan (curator)
Laura Guy (writer)
Haven for Artists (feminist collective)
Dima Hamdan (filmmaker)
Sabrina Henry (curator)
Shilpa T-Hyland (theatre director)
Amelia Jones (theorist and historian)
nussatari with naafi (artists)
Shola von Reinhold (writer)
Dagmar Schultz (filmmaker)
Cornelia Sollfrank (artist and researcher)
Tako Taal (artist)
Peter Tatchell (activist)
Womanifesto (artists collective)
Ajamu X (artist)