Dr Federica M Marelli-Berg

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).

Selected Publications

Marelli-Berg,  F. M., R. E. G. Hargreaves, P. Carmichael, A. Dorling , G. Lombardi, and R. I. Lechler. 1996. Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II-expressing endothelial cells induce allospecific nonresponsiveness in naive T cells. J. Exp. Med, 183:1603-1612

Marelli-Berg, F. M., A. Weetman, L. Frasca, S. J. Deacock, N. Imami, G.  Lombardi, and R. I. Lechler. 1997. Antigen presentation by epithelial cells induces anergic immunoregulatory CD45RO+ T cells and deletion of CD45RA+ T cells. J. Immunol. 159: 5853-61

Marelli-Berg, F. M., L. Frasca, L.Weng, G. Lombardi, and R. I. Lechler. 1999. Antigen recognition influences transendothelial migration of CD4+ T cells. J. Immunol., 162: 696-703

Marelli-Berg, F. M., L. Frasca, N. Imami, G. Lombardi, and R. I. Lechler. 1999. Lack of T cell proliferation without induction of non-responsiveness following antigen presentation by endothelial cells. Transplantation,  68:280-287

Marelli-BergF.M., D. Scott, I. Bartok, E. Peek, J. Dyson, and R.I. Lechler. 2000. Activated murine endothelial cells have reduced immunogenicity for CD8+ T cells: a mechanism of immunoregulation? J. Immunol., 165(8):4182-4189.

Berg L.-P.,  M. J. James, M. Alvarez-Iglesias, S. Glennie, R. I. Lechler, and F. M. Marelli-Berg. 2002. Functional consequences of non-cognate interactions between CD4+ memory T lymphocytes and the endothelium. J. Immunol., 168: 3227-3234

James, M.J.,  L. Belaramani, K. Prodromidou, A. Datta, S. Nourshargh, G. Lombardi, J. Dyson, D. Scott, E. Simpson, L. Cardozo, A. Warrens, R.M. Szydlo, R.I. Lechler and F.M. Marelli-Berg. 2003. Anergic T Cells Exert Antigen-Independent Inhibition Of Cell:Cell Interactions Via Chemokine Metabolism. Blood, in press