Dr Meritxell Nus
- Senior Research Associate
- BHF Basic Science Intermediate Fellow
Research
Dr Nus obtained her PhD at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid working on the interaction diet-oxidative stress in cardiovascular disease and for which she was awarded two Prizes for the best PhD Thesis from the Spanish Royal Academy of Doctors and the Universidad Complutense in 2007. She subsequently studied the role of Notch signalling pathway in aortic estenosis and atherosclerosis with Dr. JL de la Pompa in the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) where she was awarded a Juan de la Cierva post-doctoral Fellowship by the Spanish National Institute of Health. She then moved to Cambridge to study the role of Notch and B cells in aterosclerosis with Prof. Ziad Mallat.
She recently discovered that the interaction of two specific immune players called Marginal Zone B cells and T follicular helper cells play a determinant role in atherosclerosis. In response to a high fat diet Marginal Zone B cells activate an homeostatic protective programme that it is translated into modulation of T follicular helper cell activation and differentiation. She is currently elucidating how diet and gut microbiota modulate the interaction Marginal Zone B-T follicular helper cells and how this impacts on atherosclerosis. She is particularly interested in identifying the metabolic pathways that drive T follicular helper cells function during atherosclerosis
Lab Members
James Harrison (Research Assistant)
Dr Despoina Giakomidi (Post-doctoral researcher)
Ms Shanna Chen (Visiting PhD Student)
Outside Cambridge Cardio Directory Collaborators
Dr Christian Frezza, MRC Cambridge
Prof Christoph Reinhardt
