On October 23, 2024, Dr. Louisa James, Group Leader and Senior Lecturer in Immunology of Centre of Immunobiology, Blizard Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, paid a visit to the School of Basic Medicine under the invitation of Prof. Chaohong Liu of the Department of Pathobiology. Dr. James will carry out academic exchanges with scholars in related research area and discuss how to deepen cooperation in scientific research during her stay in Wuhan.
On the morning of 23rd, Dr. James was invited to be the speaker of the 21st International Academic Lecture Series and gave a lecture entitled "Tissue resident B cells and the regulation of antibody responses".
Dr. James introduced in detail the process of B cell development, VDJ rearrangement and GC reaction, and emphasized the importance of GC reaction in B cell immunity. Through rich single-cell data, Dr. James introduced the characteristics of pre GC B cells and found that pre GCB cells are highly correlated with the GC response through the biosignature dataset, and that pre GC B cells may be ready to enter into the process of category switching before the GC response. Dr. James elaborated on the process of category switching and compared the difference between the B cells that did not undergo category switching and those that did. Dr. James explained how the tissue microenvironment affects the tissue retention of B-cell responses, with significant changes in the expression of B-cell function-related genes in B-cells from the nasal mucosa of patients with upper respiratory tract inflammation and a greater tendency for B-cells to switch to IgE.
At the end of the speech, Dr. James shared her experience of publishing in the New England Journal of Medicine. She mentioned that it is crucial to use the right controls, and that diseases and related mechanisms are the focus of that journal. Audience actively discussed with Prof. James over the reasons for the high number of memory cells undergoing class switching in nasal polyps, the characteristics of B cell to IgE class switching, and the possible similarity between the B cell response of B cells in tumor tissues.
Prof. Chaohong Liu and Dr. Louisa James have in-depth cooperation for a long term and they have published many articles together. Dr. Louisa James has given a lot of important suggestions on the methods and ideas of single-cell analysis. Going forward, the two sides will continue to maintain regular academic exchanges and mutual visits relying on the jointly approved High-end Foreign Experts Program and “Yuyuanjia” Overseas Visiting Scholars Program.
