Dr Federica Marelli-Berg

T Lymphocyte Motility

I trained as a medical doctor in the University of Milan, and obtained my MD degree in 1989 with a thesis on the development of NK/LAK activity from human thymocytes. I specialised in Haematology in the University of Pavia (1994).  I obtained my PhD degree in 1997 under the supervision of Professor Robert Lechler, investigating the role of antigen presentation by parenchymal cells in the induction of peripheral T cell tolerance.  These studies were continued in my postdoctoral training, still with Professor Robert Lechler, when I developed an interest in the functional consequences of endothelial cell:T cell interaction on the migratory ability of T cells.  I was awarded a Governors’ lectureship in 2000, and have since pursued my interest in the regulation of T cell motility and migration at the molecular level both in vitro and in vivo (see research interest).

My laboratory is generously funded by the British Heart Foundation, The Gates' Foundation and the Medical Research Council.

Selected Publications

Physiologic and aberrant regulation of memory T-cell trafficking by the costimulatory molecule CD28. Mirenda V, Jarmin SJ, David R, Dyson J, Scott D, Gu Y, Lechler RI, Okkenhaug K, Marelli-Berg FM. Blood. 2007 Apr 1;109(7):2968-77. Publishers weblink

T cell receptor-induced phosphoinositide-3-kinase p110delta activity is required for T cell localization to antigenic tissue in mice. Jarmin SJ, David R, Ma L, Chai JG, Dewchand H, Takesono A, Ridley AJ, Okkenhaug K, Marelli-Berg FM.  J Clin Invest. 2008 Mar;118(3):1154-64.  Publishers weblink

T-cell receptor- and CD28-induced Vav1 activity is required for the accumulation of primed T cells into antigenic tissue. David R, Ma L, Ivetic A, Takesono A, Ridley AJ, Chai JG, Tybulewicz VL, Marelli-Berg FM. Blood. 2009 Apr 16;113(16):3696-705.  Publishers weblink