I discovered that ZFP36-family of RNA-binding proteins (RBP) is important to maintain germinal center (GC) responses upon influenza-A virus infection. GC B cells proliferate at a rate that is unparalleled in mammalian tissues and diversify their immunoglobulins to generate a broad range of affinities for the invading pathogen. This process is error-prone and can cause DNA damage and replication stress. I demonstrated that ZFP36-family of RBPs protect GC B cell from replication stress, by controlling cell cycle progression and survival of B cells expressing immunoglobulins with improved affinity for the invading pathogen.
In addition to this project, I generated the first paired transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of B cell maturation and differentiation to antibody-producing cells. This complementary study has enhanced our understanding of post-transcriptional regulation during B cell responses.
During my fellowship, I disseminated my research by presenting and discussing results at departmental meetings, one national meeting and one international invited seminar. I also published data in open-access scientific journals and make use of the pre-print BioRxiv sever to promptly inform the scientific community.
To facilitate data sharing and re-utilization, I made all my RNA-sequencing data freely available through Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO)-NCBI and Genialis/iMaps; whereas my proteomic data are accessible through ProteomeXchage data repository. In addition, my proteomic data are available on the Impres website (
http://immpres.co.uk(si apre in una nuova finestra)) a user-friendly web-interface that allows wet-lab scientists to easily navigate through complex datasets.
